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i’ve been working on a project (ie a custom doll) for months and it’s genuinely very self indulgent and i’m so grateful to have them but look!! a mini me!!!
#i found them used for pretty cheap and couldn’t say no…. and then well i eyeswapped them and wig swapped them and now they’re here!#the doll is a. um. i forget what number but it’s one of the lightest skin marie grace molds from the new look alike line#that i gave brown eyes and a wig… so. yeah! i might re wig swap them eventually bc i usually only have my hair done like this for school#but yeah i had some money saved for a project like this bc i’ve been thinking abt it for ages. and i finally did it when i saw a listing po#up for cheap!!!!!! yay!! anyways they need a name
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Bake Sale
Due to Girl Scout season, (and me buying boxes) I just got an idea, so here yall go! (03. 16. 2023)
'So... hot'
(Name) could only think about how HOT Ramshackle was right now. Thanks to that useless crow of a man, Ramshackle was the only dorm without an AC unit or any type of fan. It's the middle of summer vacation and there is no airflow through the dorm.
"(Name) pleassseee do something about this heat, I think Grim is about to die".
"Wow, I bet you regret skipping Crewl's classes now" chuckled Deuce.
"We are both in summer school, shut up Deuce".
All the mirrors going into the dorms were locked up tight for the summer, leaving all the students who needed to catch up stay in Ramshackle, which was not alot of students.
"Listen guys, if I had the money I would totally buy a unit but I have no money or a job right now".
"UGH" Ace yelled, "why can we just go to the beach or sneak into Savanaclaw's pool!". Ace marched towards the windows and began opening all the ones in the living room.
"Because what teacher will gives us a pass to go relax when you three are supposed to being doing your homework and classwork you missed!". (Name) was getting overwhelmed, they knew they should've taken Leona's or Malleus's offer on staying with either of them during summer break.
"(Nammmmmmeeeeee)" Grim cried, "please do something about this heat", Grim fell to the floor.
"Fine, let me figure something out".
"Yay!!" The three cried.
<>
(Name) walked out the campus kitchen, carrying two buckets of ice with them back to Ramshackle.
'Shit'
The ice was already melting.
'How the hell are we going to live in a magical world and not have any ice magic or spells?'.
As they made their way inside the Dorm they started opening windows, turning on the fans to on the highest settings, on cheap fan on its back with the bucket of ice holding its weight.
'Finally'. (Name) took in the cold breeze that filled the room. Grim came running down the hall putting his fatass in front of the semi broken fan. "Ahhhhhhh finally! Took you way to long henchman".
(Name) rolled their eyes, "Now that's done, I think I'm going to get a sweet treat." The word 'treat' summoned all three braincells.
"What are you gettin".
"Can I have soommme?".
"Can I help?".
'Jesus Christ' (Name) sighed, "I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to bake...."
Ace and Grimm groaned, throwing themselves back onto the "cold" ground.
Deuce looked confused, "I'm sorry perfect, why are you going to bake when it's-"
"Fucking thousands degrees out-" Ace interrupted.
Deuce glared.
"You guys don't have to help with anything, I was kinda of planning on doing this for myself...". (Name) walked away towards the kitchen.
"Nonono, I'll help you perfect!!" Deuce ran after (Name).
(Name) opened the cupboard, 'thin mints orrrrrrrrrr, hmm, wait samoas?'.
(Name) looked over at Deuce, "Deuce, one or two?".
"Um one?"
"Thin mints it is".
♡
Aced let out a moan.
"Damn buddy that's like your 10th one...".
Ace had tears in his eyes,"it's.. so... good".
(Name) gave the three a look; hunched over the counter, all groaning in happiness.
"Are these from your world perfect?".
(Name) nodded, "Yeah, there's actually-".
"Don't care make more!".
"Hench man please!"
(Name) looked at Ace and Grimm in shocked, "you know a simple please would do... also Grimm can you even have chocolate?".
Ace rolled his eyes, "the little shit ate rocks for the past year-". His comment made Duece hit him on the back of the head.
"Anyways, Perfect, do you think we can take some to lunch tomorrow?".
"Sure, I'll probably be baking all tomorrow... nothing else to do".
☆
"Oi oi crabby~ whatcha got there?".
Instinctively Ace put the brown lunch bag towards his chest, "none of your-"
"HEYYY!!". Grimm screeched
"Sh sh baby seal, let me just borrow your bag."
Grimm beated his paws on Floyd's stomach, "No! You can't have that! (Name) made those specially for me!!" He whined.
"Oh~ Shrimy made these?". Floyd popped a cookie in his mouth.
The world stopped for a minute, Floyd giving the three a lead stare. "Uh, you good bro?". Ace went to put his hand on Floyd's shoulder only to be bitten by said eel.
"FUCK HE BIT MY SHIT".
Floyd stole the bag of cookies and made a dash for the door.
"MY TREATS!!" Grimm wailed.
♤
(Name) hummed as they baked their third round of cookies, the last batch being Samoas now they were working on peanut butter. 'I guess always baking with Trey was worth the lessons-'
Que their front door being broken in with two distressed students.
"PERFECT HELP I NEED STERILIZATION STAT-"
"HENCHMAN! I NEED NEW COOKIES! THAT DISGUSTING EEL STOLE MY COOKIES!".
'There goes my peaceful afternoon'.
(Name) grabbed the first aid kit to help Ace, letting the two whine and nag about their day.
Grim plopped himself on (Name)'s lap, "So.... can you give us more cookies?".
"Sure, just don't let anyone take them this time."
♡
The next day at lunch was... eventful...
"ILL TAKE A BAG FOR $10!".
"NO! $50!".
"MAKE IT $90!".
It was like watching a pack of hyenas swarm a prey, three pairs of eyes watched from a distance.
"So... it's just cookies?". Azul observed the growing hysteria with a careful eye.
Jade snickered, "I think it's more than cookies sir~"
Azul grabbed a cookie from Floyd's bag, observing before taking a nibble.
Jade laughed, "so? What's the verdict-".
"Schedule a meeting with the perfect."
☆
"FLOYD PUT ME DOWN!!". (Name) was hunched over Floyd's shoulder.
Azul took a deep breath, "Floyd put the perfect down-".
CRASH
Azul felt a migraine forming, rubbing his temples. "So... perfect". Azul forced a smile.
"I'm not making a dea-".
"Listen! What about a business partnership? With your cookies-".
"No."
"There will be money, 50/50".
"I already-"
"And! I'll ask threaten the headmaster to give your.... Ramshackle upgrades".
♧
'It's so much hotter than the inside of Ramshackle'. (Name) was miserable, sitting at a stand in Port Town trying to sell cookies, THEIR cookies. Luckily, that ocean breeze was... somewhat frequent.
"Hggnnngg Henchman I'm bored.... let's dip".
(Name) rolled their eyes, "You got us into this mess...".
"Ha! How was I supposed to know Azul was also in summer school!". Grim threw himself under the table.
"How's business perfect?~".
"Shrimpy~!".
(Name) gave Jade a glare, "I'm miserable - it's too hot for this shit."
Floyd blew a raspberry, "Well! We have something to cheer you up-"
"A gun?"
Grim came up from the table, "AH! It's me!".
(Name) looked at the two confused, "a cardboard cut out of Grim?".
The cutout was... interesting, depicting Grim in a hat and... boots.
'Is there a puss and-'
Jade smiled softly, "Azul said it could help drive in business having a mascot~".
4/13/2024 I kinda gave up towards the end... this has been sitting in drafts for a year.... I cant figure out how to end this but Perfect gets a pool in Ramshackle in my head so :)
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ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐰𝐧!
jean kirstein x fem!reader, modern smau.
⁀➷ episode two ; the news !
➷ episode soundtrack.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
jean swiped his hands on the fabric of his jeans, wiping off the sweat that was on them. it happened everytime he got even slightly nervous, but in truth, there really was no need for him to be this nervous. maybe he was just nervous for his now new room mate. living with strangers - jean Connie and marco, at that - would certainly not be easy. maybe he was just thinking about all the things that could go wrong.
he clears his throat, raking a hand through his hair as he presses the call button next to your contact. it rings two times before you pick up.
jean makes out the background noise behind you. it sounds busy, wherever you are, and your little "hey," is barely heard. you repeat it again, a little louder as the voices in the back get quieter.
"hey. this is jean," he says. He’s pacing around in the kitchen, one hand in his pocket and the other gripping his phone.
there's a small breath of laugh on the other end. "i know, I have your number saved."
"right, right." he says, cursing himself inwardly.
there's a slight pause as neither of you say anything, and he tries to figure out why his heart is beating so fast, his hand rubbing the nape of his neck instead of laying still in his pocket - another nervous habit. it's either a scratch on the bridge of his nose or rubbing the back of his neck.
"uhm, you wanted to talk to me about something?" you ask from the other end, bringing him back to reality. he breathes in just enough to calm down.
"right, so... i wanted to tell you that. that, well, you're in. you're gonna be our new room mate." he says, face scrunching up in regret. he was going to chew marco out for telling jean to call you instead of texting. who says it like that? why'd he have to say 'youre in' as if it was a college acceptance lette-
"yay, I'm in!" you exclaim from the other line, and jeans shoulders relax after hearing it. he was being worried for no reason, really, judging by how excited you are. you continue, "thank you so much!"
he clears his throat. "yeah, no problem. i mean, you don't have to thank me. it was..a group decision, anyway, when can you move in?"
there's another pause as you him thoughtfully. "the latest I can do is probably next week. I'll have to find cheap movers and stuff, so-"
"we can help you." jean says almost instantly.
fuck. wait. was that too forward. maybe you wouldn't want three random people touching your stuff? they're going to be your room mates anyway, but maybe that was too fa-
"yeah, actually, that'd be great! if you guys don't mind, of course." you say, silencing Jean's downward spiral once more.
"great." he says. there's another pause. jean wonders what you're thinking about. he hears someone call your name in the background and then a muffled, "just a sec," comes from your voice.
"hey, yeah, sorry for that."
"no problem. are you busy right now? we can text out the details if that's easier," he suggests, leaning his weight against the kitchen counter, his free hand resting beside him.
"that would be better, yep. I'm really sorry I'm..kinda in the middle of my shift, but I'll get back to you as soon as I get home." you say. jean picks up on the breath you let out after the sentence.
"no problem, really. it was nice talking to you. bye."
"bye! thanks, again." you say, the call cutting with a small beep.
jean sighs in relief. his heart beat had gone back to normal, thankfully, and he tried not to think about why he was so nervous in the first place. all that mattered was that you seemed excited and that you'd text him the details of your move-in day.
➷ Saturday, 7:19 p.m.
"so we help her? no rewards?" Connie asks on the Saturday before they were to help you move, and jean curses when he drops his phone flat on his face. Connie snickers.
"why do you want rewards, con?" marco asks, taking a sip of his - fourth? seventh? honestly, he had lost count - cup of coffee for the day, pushing his glasses further up his nose.
Connie shrugs. "i just wanna know what the end game is here," jean groans in response, shifting from his comfortable spot on the couch to accommodate for marco.
"end game is having someone pay the rent." jean mumbles, stretching his neck.
marco sighs. "how long have you been working on that project for?" he asks, taking his now fogged up glasses off of his face. jean admired his friend's lack of temperature sensitivity as he watched him take another sip of boiling hot coffee without even flinching. jean blinks, noting how his eyes burn when he does so.
"five hours, I think." Connie says, counting on his fingers.
"without a break?" marco asks. his brows are furrowed. jean wants to scoff and point out that he's in the same boat as him, more or less, but he's too tired to start a fight, opting to shake his head instead.
“you need to fix your schedule, jean.” He says, but jean only nods. Marco’s sure he’s not even listening at this point, knowing jean’s ears stopped working as he reads the email open infront of him.
Connie throws the wrapper of the granola bar he ate in a surpringly short amount of time, still chewing on the remnants of his snack as he talked, something that marco reprimanded him for. Jean barely heard a word.
Replying to the email, he stared at the almost blinding screen infront of him as his hands hover the keyboard, feeling them cramping up a bit, distracted with thoughts for tomorrow. He had never been good with new people – opening up to some random stranger never felt appealing to him. Somedays, he felt like all of his friends were made reluctantly, even if he was incredibly glad to have them, he had never wanted it in the first place, how all of them had somehow wiggled their way into his heart and decided to stay there. It was scary, terrifying, really, how he’d be inviting nothing less than a stranger into his house the next day after not knowing anything about you. seeing you across campus multiple times wasn’t enough, even though it was comforting.
He knew you had looked familiar when he had opened the door to you. he knew your smile seemed similar to the stranger he kept noticing – on the bus, in the graphic studio, across campus, walking to class with a cup of coffee in your hand. he was no better than connie in the sense that he instantly thought you were pretty, with your pretty eyes (even though he’d never seen them upclose before the last time he saw you; he thought they were pretty then too), and your voice that he had heard only once before, when you were talking into the phone softly in the graphics studio as he worked on his project, keeping your volume low until it became almost a hum. But just the descriptors of you weren’t enough. Sure, they were enough to know that you weren’t a criminal on the loose or someone that would murder and eat jean and his friends (he didn’t know exactly why the thought crossed his mind, but he did indulge in it a little, thinking about how this new room mate would choose to kill the three of them. He’d settled on connie injesting poison because he’s too trusting with strangers holding his drinks, marco being suspicious but ultimately being stabbed in the back, and jean dying by choking with signs of struggle. Maybe he’s watched too much news, too many crime documentaries, he thinks before sleeping that night.) regardless, jean sums up that he’s too cautious about the whole ordeal.
Unlike his friends, it takes a while to get to know him. Being his friend requires patience, a hell of a lot of it, which is also probably why he hasn’t been in a serious relationship for longer than six months to a year. Marco is gentle – even while in middle school, when the two first met, he was nice to jean, a stark contrast from his other friends that were too keen on making him feel the worst about himself. Connie is a born comedian, even if he has his issues with intimacy, he has the ability to draw people in enough to stay. Sasha is charismatic and kind, something jean admires about her. Connie and sasha were inseperable in high school, which made jean a little suspicious to get to know them, because how could anyone be friends for so long and still stand eachother? How could neither of them see the worst in eachother or get bored? Maybe that was just his trauma talking, but his suspicions dissapiated when he was paired up with them for a group project. They turned out to be really good friends even after the class ended, and when marco moved back in in sophomore year, the four became really close; going to parties, having fun, having long talks about how scared they were for their future and the majors they were choosing.
these three idiots were really the only ones that jean had connected with in his life, and he still wonders why they stuck around for so long.
In his mind, his hesitancy is valid. He doesn’t know what kind of person you are and who you’d be. In his mind youre the worst person in the world because assuming the worst in people was always easier than expecting them to be the best and then getting disappointed because of it. Sure, you were pretty. Beautiful, really, with the sun setting behind you through the windows, lighting up the side of your face in the bus as jean listened to music after a long day, but he didn’t know you. if anything, it made it harder for him to actually talk to you. a bad habit, he realised long ago, that everytime he found anyone attractive, he’d choke up and have no idea what to say, his compliments coming out in broken sentences. Again, being with him was a game that required a lot of patience.
So when Sunday rolled around, he didn’t try to spend too much time in interacting with you.
➷ Sunday, 12:03 p.m.
“everything’s packed. mostly.” You say, pacing around the room, making a mental note of all the boxes you had.
“god, you have so many trinkets. Why do you need this rock?” noor asks, exasperated, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed and a marker in her hand. you had asked her to come over last night, panicked, after not starting on packing everything up the whole week. In you defence, it wasn’t really your fault. You’d been too busy with your shifts at work and your assignments to even remember that you were moving.
“do you remember that day we went by the lake because we were sad that highschool was ending? And then we tried to throw rocks in the bouncy-bouncy way but we failed?” you asked, still pacing around and picking up a notebook off of your very naked and very vulnerable looking bed, “well, that’s one of the rocks from near the lake. I wanted to remember the day, so.” You said, checking off the items that you had packed.
Noor hummed. “I remember that. We made taylor swift folklore references.”
Noor laughed as well, tugging her legs infront of her chest. “now look at us. You got home at what? Twelve at night day before?” she asked, resting her chin on her knees. You took a seat on your mattress, leaning your weight on the palms of your hands behind you.
You breathed out a laugh. “and then went to get ice cream. Dude my mom was so mad I stayed out for so long,”
Noor had always been pretty, you thought. There was a certain point in highschool when you had started getting closer to her, where you had the briefest crush on her. With long eyelashes, pretty dark brown eyes that always shone whenever she talked about something she was excited about, it really wasn’t hard to love her. The apples of her cheek were prominent when she smiles as she’s doing right now, the mole near the inner corner of her right eye almost disappearing while the mile on the left side of the crease of her chin made itself more prominent. Even if her hair was tied up into a bun, some of her dark waves that escaped from it falling onto her shoulders and her bangs – though currently a little untidy - framing her face, she looked pretty. She always did.
You tilted your chin up, closing your eyes. “im so glad im moving closer to college. No more one and a half hour transport, thank god.”
“travelling with you was always nice.” She said as you looked back at her. “back when we used to do it in highschool. The times you were absent I would have to stop myself from crying when I got on the bus alone,”
You laughed again. “im sorry about my weak body. I had so many fevers,”
“you should be. I was so scared because I’d have to go to school alone, without you. do you know how much trauma that gave me?”
“I’ll pay for your therapy-“
“I need more than that. You need to fund my red bull addiction.”
“you need rehab for that, I will not be helping your unhealthy coping mechanisms.” You say, hearing her laugh in the way that brought you comfort. You were glad you had her. You were glad that despite the apartment you were currently in never felt like home, she did. Everytime she came over with takeout that had gotten cold because of the journey, she made the place feel more like your own as you forced her to watch bad shows and scary movies with you, making her laugh even if the scene was terrifying for her to watch.
You glanced at the screen on your phone, reading the time out loud.
“when are they getting here?” she asked, taking a sip of the aforementioned red bull that she had kept beside her on the ground.
You sighed, stretching. “twelve ten.”
“they’re late.” She says. “what if they’re, like, not the best people?”
“im sure they’re not the worst. Besides, I’ll remind myself that what I had before that was an hour and a half of commute and the tiniest bathroom known to man.”
“and you’ll have me,” she says, shrugging.
“and I’ll have you.” you parrot, opening your mouth to say something else but being cut off by three loud knocks.
Noor give you a knowing look, the both of you getting up from your seats as she adjust her hair. Taking a deep breath in, you open the door with a smile.
“hey guys!” you say, being greeted by marco’s smiling freckled face, his hair swooping over his forehead just like the day he showed you around the apartment.
“hi,” he speaks, his voice getting drowned out by connies loud one.
“hey roomie! We almost got lost while coming here. place is like a maze.” He says, slinging his arm over marcos shoulder. You breath out a laugh, “right? Crazy ass town planners,” you say, opening the door wider to let them in. as usual, jean doesn’t talk much, nodding at your as greeting as you wave back.
Pretty stranger. In your house. Or, your ex- house. And he looked good today, too, a brown hoodie with light blue loose fitting jeans, his hair covered by a hat so that you could only see the tips of them through it. His keys hung off of one of his belt loops, his fingers accessorized with silver rings. He smelled nice, too, you noted.
“woah,” you heard connie say. Looking back at him, you saw him looking at noor with a small smile on his face. Noor, on the other hand, had the expression she always wore when men approached her.
Mild disgust.
You cleared your throat, “right, guys, this is noor. My best friend since highschool. That’s jean, marco and connie.”
“so youre the baldy,” she said, tilting her head towards connie, and in usual settings, this would be a slightly passive comment. But to connie, somehow, it translated as a challenge as he smirked, crossing his arms infront of his chest, trying to make himself bigger. Jean groaned from behind you, and marco, again, looked at you apologetically.
“the hair was a choice. People went too insane seeing how good I looked with longer hair so,” he waves a hand over his buzzed hair, “I shaved it all off as mercy.”
You grimace. Noor’s expression gets stronger as she sighs in annoyance. “yeah, I’d also go insane trying not to kill you.”
“do you guys… know eachother?” marco asks. you pick up the notebook from your bed again, rechecking the list of things you had. Jean leans on the wall next to you.
“she was my-“ “we were just in a group project together, don’t get it over your bald head.”
Jean snorted beside you as you gasped at the recollection. “oh my god youre the guy that gatekept all the information for the presentation!” marco joined in with jeans growing amusement, as connie’s face turned red in embarrassment.
His hands flew up in the air in defense. “hey, I was a freshman, I was…growing-“
“growing from being a complete piece of trash?” noor said.
“yes. No, I mean, like, I was trying to not be-“ “blah blah blah, you made us almost fail.” She said. “if only you could stop flirting with everyone in the group and actually do your work.” “it’s called charisma,” “charisma my ass.” She mumbled in response. You cleared your throat.
“alright, lets get to work before someone gets murdered in this place. Im sure it wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened here.” you say, picking up a relatively smaller box of all of your academic supplies.
Jean followed you, grabbing the box from your hand. marco agrees with you and heads to another, whereas connie sticks around noor, much to her dismay.
Marco speaks up as you keep the door open with your foot, standing near the doorway with a box of some of your clothes. “has…someone actually been murdered here?”
You shrugged. “a lot has happened here, apparently. Someone almost died because a pipe fell on their head. One day I came home late at night to police sirens-“
“oh yeah, what happened with that?” noor asks, finally being able to separate herself from connie who you glanced at. He seemed to be playing eeny-meeny-miney-moe with which box to pick up. “the left one is the lightest,” you tell him, and he shoots you a wide smile and two thumbs up.
Going back to the topic at hand, you catch noor – and marco – up on the…subtle crime that had occurred in the building. The infrastructure was extremely poor, making you confused between the creaking of pipes and the sounds of unwanted footsteps in the corridors late at night. It was kind of scary, living in such a cramped space with nowhere to hide while also not knowing if the noises you heard were simply because you were paranoid or because they were creaks of the weak building. But you didn’t mention any of that, focusing instead on the girl that moved out. You remembered her being really nice, even though you didn’t know her name, just her bright blue doe eyes and blonde hair. She always smiled at you when you saw her on the stairs or in the dingy elevator. She had an encounter with an almost criminal which made her call the cops, but apparently the guy was just her dad that she didn’t recognize. She had told you briefly in the lift that the two had a complicated relationship, so she was just surprised and scared after you asked her how she was doing. She soon mentioned she was moving out and living with her girlfriend and her roommate instead.
Marco let out a whistle when you reached the car, jean standing near the trunk and making space in it to accommodate for your stuff. “sounds very scary.”
“I survived,” you said, placing a box in the space jean had made, muttering a small thanks to him with a smile, earning a nod with a thin lipped smile – if you could even call it that.
“that’s insane lore from your friend,” connie says, haphazardly stuffing a box into the trunk, to which noor groans and rolls her eyes before having to readjust it herself. “yeah. I hope she’s doing well with her girlfriend.” You say.
“you kno-“ marco starts, but it’s cut off by his phone ringing with the tune of that really annoying sound on every social media platform, the one that repeatedly had the phrase ‘oh no, oh no’ with an incredibly annoying beat, making marco groan out connies name before picking it up.
“hey sash,” he spoke into the mic, talking to who you presumed to be the same sasha from your work.
“so, who’s coming in the car with you?” you ask jean while connie and noor continue their vehement words and insults thrown onto eachother, even though it was mostly connie trying to impress noor and the latter not having any of it.
Jean looks at you, squinting against the strong sunlight. His eyes are really pretty, you note, and he sighs before speaking. “well, we haven’t decided that yet. There probably wont be that much space in the car, considering all of… that.” He says, glancing at half your boxes that had already filled up the trunk. You nod, “right.”
This is the first time you’ve heard him speak for so long. You breathed in an awkward breath. Carrying a conversation with an uninterested person wasn’t new to you, and in normal circumstances, you’d have given up and opened your phone as distraction, but you were supposed to live with this guy. You couldn’t just live with someone you’d have to give awkward tight lipped smiles to everyday. no, you were more resilient than a couple dry sentences. Maybe he was just shy.
You opened your mouth to speak again, but were cut of by marco calling out your name, his hand outstretched with his phone in his palm. The screen flashed what you assumed to be sasha’s name, though it was named as ‘ice cream inhaler DO NOT CALL WHEN SHE…” the other part cut off because of it’s length.
“sasha wants to speak to you,” he said with an apologetic smile which you were sure was his resting face, as you smiled and took the phone from his hand.
“hey, sasha-“ you tried, but she had already cut you off with a sentence of her own. You hadn’t spoken to sasha other than for the few friendly exchanges you’d had with her when she was assigned a rare shift with you. she’d compliment you, you’d have to hold her back from eating all the send-backs. It was 50/50.
“hi! We’re going to be step-roommates!” she says, and you can hear the smile in her voice, forcing you to smile as well. “we are,” you reply.
“since obviously these idiots are going to tell you the best places to get takeout from, here’s the- oh, hold on. I’m getting called for an order. Give me, like, two seconds.” She says, the line going silent. You pulled the phone off of your ear, confused. Jean sighed from beside you, rolling his eyes and closing the trunk with a loud thud.
“she always does this-“ he steps next to you, holding his hand out for the phone. You hand it to him without question. “calls us when she’s in the middle of something and leaves the phone open. its dangerous-“ he says, taking the phone and placing it near his mouth, now loudly talking into the microphone. “Gordon Ramsey is the greatest chef in the universe,” he says loud enough for you to flinch with a smile as he mimicked your expression of slight amusement, smirking. This was the first time you were engaging in a longer conversation with him. Granted, he wasn’t actually speaking to you.
“she hates Gordon Ramsey. Doesn’t like how he always shouts instead of enjoying his amazing job. Her words, not mine.” He speaks, shifting the mic away from his mouth. Going back to the mic, he continues, “do you remember that fanfiction you made us read of him giving bi-“
“hi! Im back, new roomie-in-law!” she says before jean finishes his sentence. He clears his throat loud enough for sasha to hear. You can practically hear her roll her eyes, “and you, horseface.”
“hey!”
“I need a follow-up on the Gordon ramsay story. And the horseface name.” you say, taking the phone from jean’s hand and holding it like a mic.
“oh, you have a lot to catch up on if you’re gonna live with them, but don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Its going to take about three business days and three large pizzas, though.”
“deal,” you tell her with a smile, and jean scoffs as he walks away with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I have to go now, though, but have fun until I get there! And try not to lose your mind too much, jean and connie can do that to people.”
“I’ll try my best, sash.”
“I believe in you! bye!”
“buh-bye.”
➷ Sunday, 1:24 p.m.
The group is divided into an imperfect two-to-three, with you, noor and marco opting for the bus and jean and connie travelling by jean’s car, which you assume is like travelling with a married couple that dislikes eachother.
Marco agrees. Theres barely any seats left on the bus despite the fact that it’s a Sunday morning with not a lot of work rush, and you have to cling onto the poles for support. Noor leans her shoulder on the same pole your hand grips, and marco’s head is supported by his arm which was raised and rested by the handles.
“they’ve always been like that,” he says with an adoring smile playing on his lips. Its only now that you notice how pretty marco is, and his eyes are soft as he talks about his friends. “you haven’t been in the same room as jean, connie and sasha. That’s the true test.”
You laugh. “how bad is it?”
He inhales, thinking, “one time, connie climbed on top of the fridge and jean was trying to get him out with a broom. Sasha was on the kitchen counter with her arms up, trying to get him down.” He says. “to this day, none of them know why he got up there in the first place but he just…did, and they weren't even drunk. fully sober.” he says with a smile and a shrug, shaking his head in disbelief. “so, that’s how bad it is,”
You smiled. Noor rolled her eyes, murmuring, "of course connie did that.”
“oh, yeah, you guys know each other, right?” marco asks, turning his head towards her a little, his smile unwavering. Now that you thought about it, it was hard to make his smile waver. The only time you had seen anything but a small smile on his face was when youo were describing you now past living situation to him. Noor groaned from beside you.
“overstatement. i was…acquainted with him, if anything. Only because I was forced to. The entire time, all he tried to do was flex his non-existent abs at me and make me laugh. I just…hate his guts.” She says, shaking her head and pursing her lips as if just the mention of connie’s name was making her mood turn sour. Maybe it was.
“I didn’t know that this connie was the same guy you told me about,” you said. She shook her head again. “nah, its okay. You couldn’t have known, anyway.”
Marco hums, “connie can be a bit… desperate. He sees someone pretty and immediately makes himself… dispensable?”
There was a slight pause before you spoke, tilting your head at his sentence. “did you just call him a slut?”
“that’s the most eloquent way of calling someone a fuckboy.” She says, still laughing.
Marco chuckles as noor bursts into her bright laughter. You count this as permission for your own laugh to bubble up.
The bus came to a stop with you and noor catching marco up to speed on your collective history and highschool lives, marco adding his own stories and laughter. you got off the bus kind of dreading the end of the ride, even though you were going to live with him, you hoped you’d get to talk to him a lot more. Marco seemed warm and inviting, and he had told the both of you – who were technically strangers to him – about how he’d grown up with four younger siblings and how he’d had to take care of them a lot, how jean kind of helped him with his familial life, how marco felt less like he had a role to play when he was with jean, connie and sasha. His open confession of admiration warmed you from the inside, and you hoped, selfishly and maybe a little too soon, that you’d fit into their house. It wasn’t just an apartment they’d shared as friends, but a place for them to be comfortable in. you felt like you were intruding.
And you felt it even more so as noor got a call from her classmate. You’d only overheard a bit of the call on the sidewalk as the three of you walked to the building, marco telling you about the time jean used to try to flirt with people and miserably failing, and somewhere in the middle of you trying to control your laughter and marco now fully making fun of his best friend, noor had stopped walking.
you looked behind you. her brows were scrunched up in confusion, a noticeable scowl growing on her face.
“no, wasn’t that…..yeah, I thought it was on Friday. He cant just change it like that! God, okay. I’ll come over, im not that far. Yep. Oh, and the presentation, too. We can give that work to lucy. Mhm, yeah. Yep, see you.” she said, hanging up and looking at you apologetically.
“I’m so sorry, guys, I have to leave. Apparently the professor who had assigned a project to us pushed the deadline to Tuesday instead of Friday.” She said.
“woah, what? They can do that?” marco asks. she nods, sighing frustratingly. “the guy teaching us is very old. He does this all the time, im pretty sure he’s a corpse already.” You laugh a little.
She says your name softly, “Im so sorry I cant-“
“it’s okay, noor. Ive got it covered. You’ve helped a lot as is.” You said, stepping forward and engulfing her in your arms. she fit there perfectly, squeezing your shoulders before letting go.
You smiled at her, “best of luck. Call me if you need anything, okay?”
She nods, “you call me too, after you’re settled.” Turning to marco, she continues, “it was so good meeting you! we have to meet again. I mean, I guess we will,”
Marco smiles, his eyes squinting. “of course, im glad I go to meet you as well. Best of luck on the assignment.”
Noor leaves, walking with double the speed. You watched her leave, her hair flowing slightly with the wind.
you sighed with a smile, turning back to marco, “so, where were we?”
Marco’s conversation capabilities served as a distraction from your own almost all-consuming thoughts. He continued telling you, in vivid detail, how jean had asked him to help with his promposal. He had gotten down on one knee for a girl he didn’t even know infront of almost the whole school, not heeding marco’s advice of getting to know her first before doing something large and irrational. Apparently, somehow, it had worked and despite facing some amount of embarrassment even years later, atleast he got the girl to go out with him for prom.
“Strangely uplifting and wholesome,” you said, stopping infront of the door as marco fished for his keys in his pockets.
“that’s jean for you,” he slipped the key into the slot, turning to you before opening the door. “oh, and just so you don’t step on a minefield – never call jean horseface. He’ll loose his mind.” He said. Before you could ask why, he had opened the door and you were bombarded with bickering once again.
“I told you, I don’t know-“ jean voice said. You presumed it was coming from the kitchen. Connie cut him off with a smirk you knew was present on his face without even having to see it, “oh, really? And you just hid this information from us, conveniently-“
Marco cleared his throat loudly. You shed your coat and hung it up on the rack, smiling at the two of them, waving.
Connie smiled widely, waving at you with his fingers. Jean gave you a tight lipped smile.
“uhm- your boxes are kept in your room,” jean said, a cup of coffee in his hand. you could read the big, bold black letters from where you were standing – “HOTTEST MILF IN TOWN”. You nodded with a smile, opening your mouth to say something before he cut you off again. Only then did you notice a slight blush covering his cheeks.
“if you need any help and stuff, I c- we can help, or whatever.” He said, shrugging before taking a sip of his coffee. Connie looked like he was going to burst out laughing, and you couldn’t tell why. It wasn’t unusual for you to feel out of place with people, but you were just made aware of the fact as you scanned them briefly.
“thank you. really, thank you guys for everything.” You say, looking at all of them. Marco smiled at you openly, jean refused to make eye contact with you, covering the bottom half of his face with the mug (how long was he going to take a sip?), and connie only nodded slowly, his eyes watering, his hand coming up to his mouth to hold in his laughter. your eyes went to jean’s. you pointed to his hand, “nice mug.” You said.
As soon as you turned around, though, he did not hold back. His laughter was only interrupted by small “you” and “thought” “she” and then an “oh my go-“ jean groaned and you didn’t hear him defend himself, or marco laughing along with connie, as you opened the door to your room.
Your room.
You were never good with change. You sighed, looking at all the boxes – some scattered and some stacked. You guessed the stacked ones were jean’s work. The heavier boxes were on the bottom while the lighter ones balanced on top of them. The scattered boxes had to be a job done by connie. You appreciated it nonetheless, sitting down on the one patch that wasn’t occupied, scanning the room, making notes on how you’d change it. Connie was still laughing outside, only that jean was defending himself with horrible tactics. You leaned back, stealing a glance at the scene – his hands were plugging his ears, eyes shut tight as he sang loudly and terribly “baby you light up my world like nobody else-“ marco covering his mouth with a fist, his shoulders shaking as he laughed silently. You smiled.
Sure, you’d feel like an intruder. But you could try hard not to be. You refused to sink into the same cycle that you had been in in highschool, but you also refused to be alone. Taking a deep breath in, you shouted, all with a smile still present on your face.
“hey!”
The three looked at you. jean’s voice was still singing (again, terribly), and marco had to elbow him to shut him up. “I saw a pizza place down the corner. Edo you guys wanna order and try it out?”
Marco agreed instantly, and connie was immediately hopping off of his seat, opening the cabinets and taking out some mugs. Jean only looked at you. you took that as a win.
“we can drink cheap wine-“ connie said, which seemed to snap jean out of his stupor. “its not cheap, I paid a whole eight dollars for it!”
Marco cleared his throat as you made your way to the kitchen counter again, slipping onto one of the barstools. “you mean five dollars.”
“when are you going to stop treating us like common whores?” connie asks, turning around with his arms full of mugs, all with different writings on them.
Jean scoffed, “when you stop treating me like your provider.”
“provider? I hardly know he-“
“I will KILL YOU CONSTANCE.” Jean says. You laugh, marco joins, connie flinches at jeans voice, ducking under the table to shield himself.
You’d try. You’d try hard to not be an intruder.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
⁀➷ previous episode ; ( pilot ! ) ➷ next episode ; coffee grinds !
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⁀➷ taglist ➷ @mrsnobodynobody , @holding-infinity-and-a-book , @hopeless-anti-romantic , @jeanscremebrulee , @cherrypieyourface , @berrijam , @imgayandshesanime , @moonmalice , @kivernova , @potaho3frog , @xakilicious , @katestrophes
⁀➷ a/n ➷ shes a big one. sorry for the wait, i can finally sit down to write stuff since i have summer break. i was struggling HARD with this one, though, the dialogues were Not Easy considering the fact that im not funny at all (as you can tell probably). some of the dialogues are taken by conversations between me and my friends and some are taken from sticoms ive watched hehe. hope yall liked it!! as always constructive criticisms are open! also requests are open, too, since i have more time to write now!
⁀➷ comments, likes, reblogs are always appreciated!
line dividers by @peachesofteal
#jean kirstein x reader#jean kirschstein x reader#jean kirstein#aot#jean kirstein x you#jean kirschtein#shingeki no kyojin#attack on titan#marco bodt#fireflys rambles#connie springer#sasha braus#oc#smau#aot smau#attack on titan smau#jean x reader#jean kirstein x reader smau#jean kirschstein x reader smau#social media#snk smau
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HELLO TF2 COMMUNITY :D
Do you like fanmade TF2 AUs? Do you like mysteries? Do you like deep DEEP lore? Are you good at solving riddles?
If your answer is yes to all of those, then yay!! And buckle up.
We're going to play a little game. When you click on the link right above the :readmore: all the way down there, you will find yourself at a blank webpage that looks a bit like this:
This webpage will ask you for a specific password for you to enter. If you get the password correct, you will be granted access to the [TOP SECRET]-CLASSIFIED MANN FILES. If you get the password wrong, you will not be granted access to the files.
The password is a four digit number. I will be giving you a riddle to help you find out what this password could be. You might need to use a bit of google for this one:
A little girl with the last name Won goes to an arcade in Korea.
At the arcade, she wins a pinball game.
That was yesterday.
But the pinball machine was cheap, old and rusty.
So all she got was a single coin from it. It was the lowest currency one could get in Korea.
What did the little girl win yesterday?
I know this looks hard, but I promise, you do not have to be Korean to know the answer to this. All you need to know is that, currency in Korea is won (원). I can't give you more information since it may spoil the game, but if you are not sure about anything, you can easily search it up and it'll pop up first thing
If you really find yourself struggling with the answer, I suggest you try reading the riddle out loud ;)
You will be given 24 hours to find the password and get it correct before I reveal the answer for everyone. The timer starts the moment this post is published onto my blog.
There are only 3 rules you should know:
1. If you find the password before everyone else, please don't make it public!! Don't post about it, or tell everyone else. You can tell your friend if they ask for it, sure, but don't ruin the fun for those who still want to try and solve the password!
2. You can not ask for more clues, sorry, but that tiny riddle was the most thinking my brain could take for the week, and I can't make more mysterious clues and riddle :(
3. If the 24 hour timer goes off and the majority of you still haven't managed to find the password, don’t worry, you can always ask for more time. If I get more than 5 non-anon asks in my inbox asking for more time, I will extend the timer.
Anyways, best of lucks finding the password, and have fun :)
[TOP SECRET] CLASSIFIED MANN FILES- PROJECT DOPPELGANGER
(EDIT: hello all! So it seems that the links on this post are causing some problems for a lot of you guys, and the whole password part seems to work just fine but for some reason if won't show the files properly once you guessed it. So if you managed to get the password right but the webpage you were redirected to only shows you blank pages, please pop me a quick message through either inbox or DM so I can get you set right up with a shared google doc file which actually works. Thank you so much for your patience and so sorry for the inconvenience and this technical error kind of ruining the whole vibe :'(
P.S. if you can, the link works a bunch times better when on PC!)
Now that all that jazz is out of the way, here are all of my rambles!
A brief summary for those who are new:
This post is part of a big lore-drop for an AU of mine called Job Switcheroo Mercs, which is basically an AU where all the TF2 mercs have their jobs and classes switched around. If you want to learn more about the AU, you can go check out my #job switcheroo tag on my blog. You might need it for the context.
For those who already know the basic gist of the AU, but just forgot the what the heck this AU is even about, here's a little reminder.
Of course, big hugs and kisses to all my lovely Job Switcheroo AU fans out there. We were a pretty niche group but you guys gave me so much love and support all throughout it and I appreciate it so so so much. THANK YOU <3
#tf2#team fortress 2#tf2 au#tf2 oc#job switcheroo au#job switcheroo#tw unreality#just in case#those who are not familiar with tf2 can also play this game!! you do not need any knowledge on tf2 lore or gameplay- so just have fun :)#tf2 project doppelganger#job switch mercs
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Omg I loved the valentine's writing so much, thank you :D ✨️
I'd love to hear all your thoughts/process -- I really liked the attention to detail (references to canon convos, Yuno being in the theater club, "my boyfriend is a kind person," etc) while also including some new details (new named characters, details on the siblings, stuff like that). It was so fun!!
Yay you asked about it! I had so many thoughts going through my head when writing this but couldn’t say them during writing (it was a great prompt thank you for it even though you are very predictable /lh) and I needed an excuse to dump them all so thank you :)
I had a couple of ideas at first. The first was a coffee shop au where Yuno works at a café and the other two are regulars, but that one felt a bit cheap and I don't really care about coffee shop aus anyway (I generally won't write something I personally wouldn't want to read). The second was an early trial 2 fic where the three of them are in Shidou's cell and Shidou went out for a while do they talk until he gets back. The problem with that one was that Kotoko's attacks would inevitably come up, which would result in Yuno and Futa having some not nice things to say about her, and even if Mahiru were to defend her she would be outnumbered 2 to 1 and it might end up feeling a bit overpowering, especially since I probably would have made that one Futa POV, and I wasn't sure if it would go against the no undue hate rule. To be clear, I quite like Kotoko, I find her amusing, but it may be difficult to separate my opinions with the characters' and there is no way I can have Yuno and Futa be nice to her as that would be out of character, which is something I cannot stand even in other people's works, let alone mine. The idea to try something with Futa's sister and Mahiru's best friend being beauticians was my third idea, and the one I ended up doing. I don't actually believe they work in the same place, but I have to make the story begin somehow, and it's not like it contradicts anything in canon, so I ran with it. I did really want to try and get all three of them in the fic despite the prompt not requiring it and this was one of the few ways I can think of since, like you said, aside from Mahiru they wouldn't really seek each other out of their own accord in or out of the prison, so it would need to be a chance encounter of a sort.
I chose Yuno for the main POV because I felt that she would be the easiest perspective to write in terms of her being the most realistic of the three and therefore the most likely to describe the events as they are. Of course, her personality and inner monologue would be more difficult to get down, especially because of how misinterpreted she is, so I was somewhat cautious about that. Based on the audience reception I seem to have done it alright, so I'm glad.
I knew from the start that I wanted to have Yuno and Mahiru talking from beginning to end, with Futa only showing up for a short time in the middle. Both have reasons why they would want a beautician's appointment so it would be easy to set them up from the start, but because of his misogyny (sorry about that but you know it's true. Fucking "girl talk is boring" coming from a Twitter user) Futa is unlikely to stick around. I think he was still there long enough to leave an impression. I actually wanted to include another section where Futa would talk more about his childhood and how he spent much of it in the beauty parlour (before Sayori was hired, so she wouldn't know) (I think that's a headcanon I got from you actually hehe) but once I'd written the whole thing I couldn't figure out how to fit that in and his sister and been gone for a long time, so I ended up not doing it. Plus I needed to start prioritising my studies.
In my first draft Mahiru's beautician didn't have a name at all and only had two lines of dialogue: her first line, which was originally just her talking to Mahiru, and the line where she says "I've never heard Kajiyama-senpai speak like that before." It felt a bit awkward to have her say just one line in the middle if she was basically ignored for the rest of the work so I gave her a slightly bigger role (while still focusing on the canon cast. Usually I only include OC and canon interactions when no canon character can fulfil a necessary role) and for that it qas easier to refer to her by a name rather than 'Mahiru's stylist' every time. Also I already thought up of her personality (cheerful and gossipy, similar to Mahiru) so it would have been a bit of a waste not to include her. (Side note: before writing this I generally ignored this but didn't she give Mahiru love advice? I won't assume she meant for anything bad to happen but if Mahiru was taking advice from this woman then I think it's worth putting her under suspicion. Mahiru's view on love comes from the romanticised ideal that gets sold the public, so I wouldn't be surprised if her friend had also bought into it. I imagined her to be slightly older than Mahiru but not much, and I'm unsure if she herself has been in a relationship before so I left it vague, though if she hadn't that does bring into question Mahiru's claim that she is a love expert. Not that Mahiru would question that. Might make that into its own post.)
I intended for the reveal that Yuno's beautician was actually Futa's sister to be a bit of a plot twist. I'm not sure how well that worked, but considering you knew who you asked for seeing a ginger beautician might have raised some flags. I don't really mind, it wasn't a major thing. I imagined her to be considerably older than Futa, to the point where she would become a substitute mother figure in the absence of his birth mother, which I suppose would be possible at any age, but I thought being much older would exemplify that. (The age I put here would make her older than Shidou, which I'd funny to think about considering how he calls himself old (Shidou is NOT FUCKING OLD HE IS YOUNG AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL STOP CALLING HIM OLD-ahem)). In terms of personality, I thought she would be somewhat similar to Futa due to similar environment, but much less pathetic lol. Due to needing to step up fairly young she became pretty responsible, and she is not very talkative despite her job, keeping things very professional unless she's talking to family, of course. I'm an only child, so I don't have much experience with sibling dynamics, but I imagine their relationship would be a mostly playful while secretly caring one, though neither of them would admit it (also from you).
I needed to include a moment where Mahiru talks about love, it wouldn't be Mahiru if she didn't. Half way through, when I realised I didn't do that yet, I jotted down a section where she asks Yuno about it and inserted it where it fit. I also wanted to bring to attention how unhealthy her ideals of love are, both to herself and to her boyfriend, and how she tries to push them onto others anyways, the dramatic irony was too good to miss and I was giggling the entire time while writing it. Yuno, being more... rational, shall I say, than her, realises it but due to her own issues and insecurities as well and not wanting to get involved she doesn't say anything (what I mean by most straightforward perspective). Her friend is as bad as she is, that's why her views went unchecked for so long.
I love putting references to canon in my work, it helps me keep in character. My approach to fanfic is generally take as much from canon as possible and fill in the gaps with what fits, so when discussing hobbies or school I made sure to include details like that and I tried to use dialoguethat was present in the source as well. I even referenced the This Is How To Be In Love With You locations post as well as researched on education systems in Japan to get an idea of how to write that (I ended up not using the latter very much. Still worth knowing).
A while after I started this, I realised the had parallels with each other and... kinda went a little crazy over it. (Listen, Yuno and Futa are opposites of each other, the way they approach life is very different yet in many ways they are also the same guys-) So I wanted to bring it up a little bit here, which is another reason why Yuno is a good POV and she is most likely to catch that while the others will more likely deliberately ignore it due to preconceived dislike. It does do into waxing poetic a bit and I wasn't sure if it was a bit cringe, but it's one of the things you liked about it, so I'm happy.
Initially I thought this would be the only meeting these three would have in this universe; there is something poetic about meeting someone only once, never to think about them again, yet that interaction was still meaningful. While this I'd what happened to Futa, ultimately I felt bad about breaking everyone up, so I decided on a whim that Mahiru would approach Yuno to be her friend because it wouldn't be too out of line for her. I am really proud of that last line.
For now, that's it. For my first finished fanfiction and my first Milgram fanfiction, I am actually quite pleased with that. I hope to be able to make more in the future once I'm done with school!
#wow this got long#Take this ramble of my thought process when writing this#ask#I'm happy that you liked this! So glad I got you.
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Recap of Boys Planet Episode 1 (Part 1)
It’s time for another giant MNET show! Are you excited, fellow Star Creator? Woo!
This is Boys Planet, also called Boys Planet 999 by random incorrect people, including me. And this thing you’re reading is a “watch along” guide/recap to the show. You can read it as you watch the show to get the behind the scenes dirt, or to keep track of who is who and what is going on, or after you watch, or whenever. I don’t spoil anything with respect to who gets kicked off, but I will help you connect the dots with respect to who is who. I’ll use helpful pictures and stuff, too.
All time stamps will correspond to the version on Viki. When I list ages, I’ll use international ages (Korean ages have historically always been 1 more than the way the rest of the world accounts ages).
Who am I?
An internet rando. I live somewhere in the United States and am over 21 years of age. I used to sing acapella and have a strong sense of pitch, but for dancing I just know what I like. I can read/understand a bit of Korean and a bit of Japanese as well, and can tell the difference between spoken Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, so at times I might be able to shed a little light as to what’s going on. When it comes to evaluating performances, I’m not likely to be mean, and I try to understand what might be going on with people but I will be snarky and honest, especially about the editing. Cool? Cool! 🙂To the recap!
Feel free to skip past the drama-teaser to 1:25 for an earnest promise that the show’s producers have paid other people to watch them so that they can’t possibly cheat, before the show can begin and of course, immediately begin to cheat. Yay!
The show’s host, I’m sorry, “Star Master”, Hwang Minhyun, talks earnestly and dully about how there are stars in the sky and foreign members of kpop groups. Hilariously, he appears to be in a futuristic room looking out into a starry sky, perhaps aboard an orbiting space station with a really good gravity system in place. His desk, a cheap Ikea looking affair, is bedecked with a model of the main seating area for the show -- The Space Council Chambers -- a name plate that says “Star Creator”, an unusually huge yellow desk lamp, and an old fashioned globe. This is the shit I live for.
Minhyun is known for his appearance on Produce 101 Season 2 (aka, Broduce 101) as well as for being a popular member of both Wanna One and NU’EST. I’m more of a Baekho girl, but I like Minhyun just fine. There’s something about his face that I never, ever, ever recognize him when I see him, which I find is often the case for Korean “visuals.” He is nice looking, if a bit… personality free? But that could be the directing.
Anyway, Minhyun gets up and pushes a button that says start…
And then we see a (computer generated) room which has been set aside to house a large…. gumball… machine... thing (that is computer generated). Large plastic balls fall from the two parts of the machine to meet in the center. None of this is necessary, or real, and I find that delightful.
Minhyun tells us that now, we are all Star Creators and we’re going to make the next Kpop boy group that the world wants. You know, in case you’re not happy with A.C.E, Astro, Ateez, The Boys, BTS, Ciipher, CIX, Day6, DKZ, Drippin, Enhypen, E’last, Exo, FTIsland, GOT7, Golden Child, Highlight, IKON, JustB, Kingdom, Lucy, Monsta X, NCT, Oneus, ONF, OnlyoneOf, Pentagon, The Rose, Seventeen, SF9, SHINee, Stray Kids, TO1, Treasure, Trendz, TXT, TVXQ, Up10tion, Vav, Verivery, Victon, Vixx, WEi, Winner, Xdinary Heroes, Younite, or Z-Stars. But yes, we need more groups. Bring ‘em on.
Minhyun goes on to talk about how there are two groups of trainees -- K group (Korean) and G group (Global), represented by blue and pink respectively, as well as two heavily mic’d flags.
“Please vote for the boy shining brightest!” the shiny boys chant in unison.
You can vote for whoever you want, whether K or G, though the editors do strongly suggest you vote K, and the votes will again be weighted the way they were in GP999 -- ie, Korean votes will be weighted as 50% of the votes, and Global votes will be weighted as the other 50%. If you want to skip past the voting instructions, skip to 5:20.
So, we look down at what looks kind of like one of those rolling-marble puzzles,
but it turns out to be the hallway through which all the trainees have to walk on their way to the Space Council Chambers.
Lee Da Eul (18) and Lim Jun Seo (17) from 143 Entertainment, the first to enter, are offered sparkly star stickers, and they decide to give themselves 1 star each, adding that they aren’t totally sure if they even deserve those one stars. Ok, politeness is sweet, but why go on this show if you don’t believe in your abilities? Anyway, these chosen two get to say “woah” and “eego buyo?” as the lights turn on loudly. They explore the Council seating, feel the soft seats for the top 9, then decide to sit in seats 4 and 5. (Later on, they’ll perform “Replay” by SHINee as their audition.)
Next to enter are the trainees from Wakeone, who, we see in a flashback, had a pre-show meeting with their sunbae, Kim Chae Hyun from Kep1er, who did really well on GP999. Chaehyun encouraged them to be confident on the show, saying, “If someone is very good but has no confidence then there’s no charm to them.” The five Korean trainees from Wakeone gave themselves 7 stars each -- these are Kim Taerae, Park Hanbin, Lee Jung Hyun, Mun Junghyun, and Park Minseok. Their confidence spurs Lim Jun Seo to go move to seat 9. Wakeone’s maknae, Mun Jung Hyun (17), sits in the chair for #1. (Later on, these 5 will perform “The Real” by ATEEZ.)
From here there’s going to be a lot of fighting as to who gets to sit in that chair, and I’ll be honest, I don’t care that much.
Next to enter is: Canada! One of the Wakeone trainees says “I would’ve never imagined someone from Canada” as the on-screen words say, “What will this Canadian trainee look like?” The combined impression from those two sentences is that people from Canada are unimaginably weird looking. Mun Jung Hyun wonders, “Will people with blonde hair and blue eyes show up?” Which, again, hilarious. Do they not know that Somi (IOI/soloist/future Star Master this season), Wendy from Red Velvet, Mark Lee from NCT, and a bunch of other k-idols are from Canada? Why do I know that, come to think of it? Why do I know that, and not where my keys are?
Also, whenever Koreans talk about Canada, all I can think about is the k-drama, Goblin, in which they talk about “Canada” as if it is a single city with maybe two restaurants, and where it is always the beginning of autumn, encased in a gentle fluttering of orange maple leaves.
We meet Seok Matthew (20), who is independant, and has given himself three stars. He looks a tiny winy bit like Xiumin from Exo to me. In an interview, we can see that he speaks Korean reasonably well. His sister got him into dancing and now he really likes it, and he came to Korean to reach his dream.
Then we meet Japanese trainee Takuto, born November of 2007, dressed for… boxing? He has boxing gloves hanging from a string around his neck and has a sweat band around his head. In his intro package, he speaks in sort of halting Korean -- hey, it’s a lot better than my own Korean -- and poses in power poses to show he’s a “manly man” (they translate it as “tough guy” but google translate says “manly man” and I think that’s funnier).
An up close shot reveals he has actually stenciled “Takuto” in English letters on his cheek with blush.
As the MNET editors mercilessly play the clip of him saying he’s a manly man ( “상 남… 상 남 자” /“Sang nam… sang namja…”) over and over and over again as if to teach us the proper pronunciation, Takuto looks around at the older bigger guys and makes a big heart over his head with his hands. All the other guys react by laughing and clapping, charmed.
MNET obviously isn’t showing everyone who comes in, as eagle eyed viewer will spot additional trainees in the Space Council who were not shown entering, but hey, I mean, whatever, it’s MNET. This has been edited so much it’s basically fiction.
In comes Wumuti (23), who has such a unique look to him that I was curious as to his background. My internet roving tells me that he was also on the MNET show Under 19, and that he’s an ethnic Uyghur from China. I was like, ok, what is a Uyghur? Turns out they’re a sort of Turkish ethnic group but mostly they live in Northwest china, and oh…. It’s really sad and awful, guys. The Chinese government is doing things like work camps and forced sterilization and stuff to try to wipe them out. I can’t help but root for anyone who comes from a background like that. Also, his name written in Korean characters looks cute: 우무티. Later on he’ll perform UN Village by Baekhyun.
So, Wumuti comes in and we see he’s given himself 6 stars. He makes a beeline for Chair 1, where he loses Rock Paper Scissors. Come on, can’t the guy catch a break?
Then we see a montage of trainees fighting for Chair 1, and again, I don’t care. They plank for it, thumb war, etc. Kum Jun Hyeon, 19, who has absolutely covered his nametag in stars to the point you can barely see even his name, is cheered on by his Redstart ENM labelmates as he nabs the chair. They have also gone completely HAM on those stars. (Later on, he’ll do Nunu Nana by Jessi.) I feel worse and worse for our initial two guys, giving themselves just one star.
Apparently, MNET isn’t interested in spending time watching each trainee come in this time, and that’s possibly for the best, but it does make it a bit sketchy that we see certain trainees.
For example, we meet the trainees from Taipei, who come in like this:
Left to right, this is Chen Kuan Jui, Qiu Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong. Kuan Jui, holding that bejeweled stick, has given himself 5 stars, while the others have given themselves 2 or 3 each. Mun Jung Hyun and Kim Tae Rae wonder to each other, is that a magic staff? Like the kind that Sun Wukong carries? (Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, is a famous character from Chinese mythology.) (Later on they’ll do Tiger Inside by SuperM.)
Kuan Jui marches up to Chair 1 and does a full standing split that would actually put Le Sserafim’s Kazuha to shame
And thus, he earns the seat.
I don’t know if the ability to put one’s ankle behind one’s neck is a something I need from a kpop idol. But I mean, good for him? I guess?
In come the trainees from Jellyfish, and Lee Ye Dam reacts as if someone has splashed him in the face with cold water, which, given that this is MNET, is not impossible. Someone says, “no way!” which is very odd, because Jellyfish always sends trainees to shows like this. I mean, Mina and Sejong came out of PD 101. And it’s not as if Jellyfish is doing all that well. They squandered Sejong, they murdered Gugudan, and their most successful group is Verivery, who are very sweet, talented, and hardworking but not exactly smashing sales records. So yeah, not sure what Yedam is so excited about.
We get a bit of a slow-mo to take in what we might reasonably be excited about: sexy Park Gun Wook (18).
To be clear: I don’t personally find him sexy; he’s way too young to seem sexy to me personally. I’m saying that that is obviously what he’s going for. He gives off big time Kang Daniel vibes to me, not really in looks but in terms of what he’s aspiring to. He and his fellow Jellyfish trainees are tall and manly, and Gun Wook already may have a fan following since he did pretty well on another survival show called Wild Idol. Gun Wook goes straight for Chair 1, and the other trainees comment on how muscular he is. He challenges the current seat sitter, a Japanese trainee named Riku, to a thigh wrestling game (??). Poor Riku -- we didn’t see him take the seat, but we sure see him lose the seat.
Time for an American trainee! I love that the Korean word for USA is “MiGuk” (or Bi-Goo, as it’s usually pronounced). Apparently it translates to Beautiful Country, which is so kind of them to say. I hope that the USA will do more things to earn that name going forward.
Out come Jay and Na Kamden. Jay, lovey, there are already enough Jays in Kpop --you have to think of a different name. It seems like Jay strongly prefers speaking English, but understands some Korean, while Kamden understands Jay’s English but prefers to speak Korean. Kamden appeared on Wild Idol as well.
Then we get a montage of tall global trainees, mostly Chinese. For people like me who don’t readily understand heights in cm, it’s good to know that 183 cm is 6 feet. So someone 188 cm is like, 6’2.
We also meet Cong and Dang Hong Hai from Vietnam, who later on will perform View by SHINee. Hong Hai speaks Korean, even if it’s with a really thick accent. It has to be so hard for the global contestants.
Then we meet the group from Osaka, Japan, and it turns out one of them is Keita, who the whole Space Council recognizes. He was on YG’s TreasureBox, the show that made the group Treasure, and then later on debuted with Ciipher. It’s not too weird he’d come on this show, as Ciipher is still, alas, in semi-nugu territory.
Ah, here is Yuehua, who are sending in 4 Korean trainees and 4 Global trainees, each entering via their respective doorway, which is so charmingly unnecessary. The Korean trainees come out in all black, while the “global” team is a bit more colorful in faded denim. If you’re not familiar, Yuehua is a Chinese company with branches in Korea. They co-manage WJSN with Starship, and manage Everglow outright. They also manage new boy band Tempest.
Anyway, then there’s a montage of the trainees finding each other handsome and saying they look like other famous people, capped off by the entrance of Sung Han Bin to the strains of tender piano music that presumably plays in his wake naturally due to his extreme handsomeness.
Even I can tell that he is in fact, quite good looking in that classic kpop way. He looks like he should be with SM entertainment, but he’s from STUDIO GL1DE, which doesn’t bode well for his skills. A guy who looks like that who could do a nice step-touch and could at least carry a tune in a bucket would get picked up by a more prestigious agency. But maybe I’ll be proven wrong on that…. Hmmm….
Cube’s trainees are announced, and we’re treated to a brief montage of Cube’s top artists, including BtoB, Pentagon and G-Idle. The camera pauses for a moment on Hui from Pentagon as the group performs Shine. The trainees talk about how talented the Cube sunbaes are -- how talented would their hoobaes be? Out comes Bak Do Ha, looking like a figure skater. (Later on he’ll be performing My House by 2PM.)
There’s still one more empty chair, and the Space Council wonders: what agency could sending the last trainee? It turns out it’s also… Cube?!? Bak Do Ha smiles and laughs to himself as the other trainees are wondering why this last trainee is being announced last and separately. They all immediately recognize him as Hui-sunbaenim from Pentagon, a group that debuted in 2016, has had some serious ups and some serious downs, and won a bunch of music shows as recently as a few months ago. This 29-year-old man who has already done his military service bows to the 15 year olds and introduces himself as Lee Hoe Taek from Cube, politely saying “I look forward to working with you.”
Guys. GUYS. I have a lot of feelings about Hui from Pentagon being on this show. I could talk endlessly about it, but the upshot is: negative. I have negative feelings about this. When Pentagon went on Kingdom, they actually kind of… fell in my esteem. Hui seemed so sad, like the group was just so sad, and Hui was pushing so hard to make his song remixes cool that he forgot to make them… pleasant to listen to, or fun to see performed. I think Hui is a genuine, top-tier talent when it comes to songwriting, producing, and singing. I love a lot of Pentagon songs, including ones people don’t talk about but should, like Can You Feel It and Sha La La. I am still angry that E-Dawn got kicked out over being a human being with a love life, and angry that it hurt Pentagon a lot, and heartbroken that a lot of that probably landed on Hui’s head.I get it that he’s doing this to get people to notice Pentagon. After all, their contracts are up in 2023, and no doubt they’ll want to leave that awful agency. Maybe they’ll pull a GOT7 and all leave together and stay together. So I get it that he wants to promote. But the thing is, I don’t believe that “all publicity is good publicity.” I think having people feel sorry for you will make them not feel impressed by you, or attracted to you, and I think that will hurt you. I think this was a big mistake and it makes me feel second-hand-humiliation. I hope I’m wrong. Sincerely, I do.
Anyway, this award winning songwriter and top-tier vocalist has rated himself 3 stars. Thinking about it, that was kind of the only move he could make -- he has to pretend to have a reason to be on the show, and that reason can only be to “work on myself and continue to improve to be the best Lee Hoe Taek I can be”, or something along those lines. To be Hui and give himself 4 (or more) stars would feel like an NBA star who came to dunk on a bunch of high school kids.
We cut to his first interview with the staff, in which he said that he had only gotten discharged from the military a week ago and feels shy in front of the camera. We get a brief montage of trainees saying they’re not sure why he’s here, some of them seeming a little irritated. Others say that it’s a honor to be on the same show with Hui.
Hui decides to challenge the current number-1 chair sitter (16 year old Park Ji Hoo, who says “I just got here!”) to a contest to win the chair, and bowing deeply and speaking politely, says he’d like to have a singing contest. Of course. He lets out a delightful musical phrase, and Ji Hoo stands there listening, then scurries away without singing a note.
There’s something so poignant about Ji Hoo saying, “I just got here” to Hui. He just got here in the show, he just got here in this industry -- he just got here on this PLANET compared to Hui. And here comes Hui to take the chair. I like Hui, I do, I just…. Ugh.
Ollie, who is representing China but seems quite comfortable speaking English, notices that the two sides of the room are really different, with K-group mostly wearing suits or leather, and G-group more varied and colorful. Yes, that is obvious. Can we have another season of Youth With You that doesn’t end with a milk scandal, please? Anyway…
Interestingly, Ollie can also speak a decently pronounced, if slightly halting, Korean in his interview. Zhang Hao can also speak a bit of Korean -- it sounds to me like he has a Chinese accent on his Korean, but it’s not like I would really know. But they’re both Yuehua trainees and it wouldn’t surprise me if their agency gave them intensive Korean language training. Love that. It’s really smart of Yuehua, and so truly helpful to their trainees.
0:23:00 The Judges Come Out
The room darkens and the trainees watch a short video about how they’re on Boys Planet now and are trying to become shining stars or whatever the shit. Turns out this year, there will be multiple hosts, and the viewers will be called Star Creators. The boys are nervous in general and in specific.
Time to meet the vocal master: Lee Seok Hoon. The trainees recognize him, and while they clearly respect him, they’re scared of him after his time on Produce101. He’s known for turning his head to the side and looking disgusted when someone hits a sour note, or for nodding appreciatively with his eyebrows raised when someone hits a good note.
Solji is the female vocal master and their enthusiasm seems bigger -- it’s Solji from Exid! Who doesn’t love her? Wrong people, that’s who. A trainee says that she’s been teaching at a University, and like, I hope so. I just want Solji’s life to be full of respect and comfort. She just seems like such a class act. I bet she’s an excellent teacher. And then Onestar comes out, who we might recognize from GP999. The trainees cheer for him and he makes them cheer more.
Then the rap master: pH-1 from H1ghr music, who introduces himself in rapid English. Several of the trainees claim to be big fans. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never heard of him. And I actually do listen to some k-rap. Per Wikipedia, he was born in Korea but moved to New York when he was 12. I guess he chose English as the lingua franca, but in that case, talk more slowly, dude. Anyway. Wikipedia adds, “As the three keywords he pursues in his music are truth, positivity, and experience, his work contains positive or honest messages, generally excluding references to drugs, money bragging and excessive "flexing", and explicit sexual content.” So, look forward to that. Or not. I don’t know what you’re into.
Dance Masters: From 1Million, Back Koo Young and Choi Young Joon. Look I don’t know much about much but I *do* know that 1Million is top tier when it comes to dance. So these guys are good. The trainees are psyched to see them. Also, Lip J, who is “the living legend of waacking.” The trainees say their judges/trainers are like the Avengers.
The judges immediately move into intimidation mode. It’s time to find out how the trainees rated themselves, star wise. The Korean group was more confident, overall.
What’s sort of interesting about this is that during GP999, the Chinese girls were far more confident than the Korean girls. That’s because Chinese culture isn’t as self-effacing as Korean culture is, in general. Kind of interesting, too, that they had the boys do this, but not the girls. With the girls it would have been such a mine field because it’s “unfeminine” to have faith in yourself. Anyway.
Japanese trainee Haruto interviews, in Korean, “Only a maximum of four stars were allowed, but almost everyone did whatever they wanted.” Yep.
The judges explain that their first performance will be the “Style Level Test”, during which their self-assessed star levels will be replaced by judge-assessed stars. Also, we learn that K-group and G-group are being pitted against each other; the team that wins more stars overall will get access to the next song that they have to practice a day earlier. Kind of cruel -- my assumption, without having seen the whole episode, is that the K-group will win, and the G-group will be at a further disadvantage, having one day fewer to practice and needing even more time due to language barriers. Why do I watch these shows? Am I mentally well?
Auditions Begin: 0:32:58
Finally, we get our first audition -- Team Jellyfish, who gave themselves all 4 stars. The trainees are suitably cowed; after all, Kim Dayeon from Kep1er is from Jellyfish. Kim Gyu Vin (who is a serious talent in his own right, and will later on perform Kick It) calls Park Gun Wook “Park Gun-Wook -nim” even though, as he notes, Gyu Vin is actually a bit older than Gun Wook. It’s just that Gun Wook looks so big and mature. Little boxer Takuto met team Jellyfish backstage and backed away from them as if scared, his hands in a fig leaf position, and they encouraged him to come closer and were nice to him and called him cute. Gun Wook is the leader, the all rounder, and is also apparently pretty nice. See? Kang Daniel vibes?
They’re going to be performing GBTB (Go Beyond the Barrier) by their sunbaes, Verivery. One of the dance masters actually choreographed this, but the boys seem confident to perform it in front of the choreographer. Fighting!
Left to right: Jang Yeo Jun, Park Hyun Been, Han Yu Seop, Park Gun Woo
My thoughts:
I’ll be honest, this is my first time hearing this song, and I’m ok not hearing it again after this. Just sort of… like what if you took all the NCT songs and threw them in a blender with an electric guitar? Sorry, VERRER. I still think Verivery are very cute and charming and my bias is Dongheon.
As for the performance: I have not a ton to say, because it was fine. All four of them did fine dance wise. Gun Wook stood out with his charisma and his big nice face. (I know the Korean ideal is small faces, but I like big faces.) I think Jang Yeo Jun danced a little bit better than the others, doing those weird leg kicks a little bit better, and Park Hyun Been rapped really fast and pretty well. Their singing was on key, too. I think Han Yu Seop was the main vocalist, but I actually think his singing was among the weakest -- there were times that I couldn’t even hear him sing. But they were dancing really hard. So for an audition for one of these shows, he was ok.
They ask GunWook to dance by himself, and he chooses a song by Seventeen. The dance masters warn him that it’s hard, but he’s unbothered. He has good charisma, great facial expressions, and sharp movements. As far as I can tell, he’s good.
The judges give them all the same score -- 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ . They took away a star because the boys didn’t sing loud enough. The boys do their best to accept their fate.
WakeOne doing Glitch Mode.
The team comes out in a choo choo train formation -- sorry for that extremely technical term -- then introduce themselves (and I’ll tell you a little more):
Super Charming Anthonny! (He’s almost 19, from Japan, and got all A’s on Produce 101 Japan)
Refreshing energy Min! (He’s 22, from Thailand, and also went on Under Nineteen)
Powerful Dance Haruto! (He’s 18, from Japan, specializes in dance, and went semi-viral for complaining that his profile picture didn’t look like him, even tho it kinda does….)
After they introduce themselves, Haruto asks if they can have a moment to check their formation -- basically, they want to rehearse on stage during the audition? The judges let them, sighing about kids today, but everyone is mildly impressed that these foreigners are talking to each other in Korean. Min’s profile says he speaks Thai, Korean, Chinese, and English, but not Japanese, so maybe that’s why they’ve settled on Korean to talk to each other -- plus it looks better to the judges that they know enough Korean to communicate.
My thoughts:
I have to note that Glitch Mode is the kind of song I’m a bit over. I really like Cherry Bomb and Firetruck and even got on board with Kick It but this sort of shouting-in-unison, wandering base line, jazzy-melodic-SM-bridge when the singers can sing… I just am a bit past it. Sorry, folks. (Update: But I do love Ayo, so who knows anymore?) So I don’t know this song super well. I listened to it twice before watching the performance trying to figure out what the melody is and kind of failed. So. There’s that.
This was a really cute performance, though. I watched the full version on youtube before I watched the show version. All three of them danced well, with a lot of energy and great facial expressions.
Haruto obviously stood out for dancing, doing aerials and backflips and splits. He rolled with the fact that his mic pack fell out of his pocket right at the beginning, and didn’t let it show on his face. But his singing was egregious. He’s not a singer, and this song is incredibly difficult to sing even when you’re standing still. Also, his rapping wasn’t too bad.
Min did some high kicking and acrobatics as well, and his rapping was actually good. I won’t say his singing was good but it was on key as far as I could tell, which is an achievement.
Anthonny was the vocalist of the team and as such didn’t do any flipping around, but he sang the best. Like I said, overall, pretty charming. I have a soft spot for Anthonny for no darn reason. He’s just a cutie.
Interestingly, the version that aired on the show had most of the bad singing edited out. I think the show wanted Haruto to look better. The judges ask him about his dancing ability and he says he used to do ballet and proceeds to do a sort of crazy 30 consecutive ballet turns. Haruto is obviously a really good dancer, but so was Min, who also rapped well. And Haruto’s singing was very, very bad -- did I mention that? But they still gave him an All Star rating ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ , which strikes me as objectively incorrect. I like him, you guys. I do. He’s charming and cute and a great dancer. He didn't sing well in his audition. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. I think maybe 2 or 3 stars would have been fairer. Or maybe Haruto sang a separate song and did a lot better in it, but we didn't see...?
Min and Anthonny both get 3 stars 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ , though the show doesn’t care enough to bother to show it.
Next up, at 49:00, is Team Taipei. I’ll put their photo back up so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.
Again, left to right, that’s Chen Kuan Jui, Qui Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong.
The judges immediately ask about the big stick and he explains he needs it for performance.
My thoughts: They perform Tiger Inside by SuperM. As always, I checked out the Youtube version first, before I watched the MNET edited version. I like this song just fine, if you’re wondering.
The flexible Chen Kuan Jui is 22. His online profile mentions he does ballet and that one of his hobbies is “stretching.” Yeah, that checks out. His dancing is very good -- little details like how he bends his fingers, stuff like that. You just know his toes are pointed inside those boots. That said, his vocal color is unpleasant, and his choice to retrieve and spin that dumb stick was…. You know…. A choice. A wrong choice, but a choice. Sorry if you liked it, but I found it really unimpressive. I’d rather just watch this talented dancer dance.
The blonde Qiu Sheng Yang is 21. He also was on Atom Boyz with Ren You, on the same team but eliminated much sooner than Ren You was. His performance here is not fabulous but not awful. He seemed uncomfortable to me, like he was overdancing a bit.
The distinctive looking Chen Ren You is 19. His online profile states that he’s a singer; he was on a Taiwanese reality show called Atom Boyz that sounds like a frickin’ hoot, but doesn’t seem available in full with English subtitles, anywhere. Ren You has one of those faces -- like GunWook on this show, or Sehun from EXO, or that one guy from Drippin, Junho. Like a face that’s just like HI, I AM A FACE. I dig it, don’t get me wrong. Anyway, his performance was good. I thought his dancing was purposeful, but sort of calm, and his singing was really good. On key, on rhythm, pleasant, all that good stuff. I’m rooting for him.
The delightfully monikered Dong Dong is 22 and represents Stardust Entertainment. I’m old as shit but I am still apparently 12 years old on the inside because I can’t. He apparently was on a Chinese reality show called The Coming One 2. Anyway, he does fine, I guess. On key, dancing is decent, it’s not awful. Bring it on, bringenon, brigggedon!
So yeah, I say Chen Kuan Jui was the best dancer in the group, and Renyou is the best singer in the group, but they were all basically ok. Of course, the MNET editing focuses almost entirely on the stupid stick, and Renyou’s excellent singing is edited out. They give Renyou 2 stars ⭐⭐ . Are we watching the same thing? Maybe his dancing was bad and I just can’t tell because I know nothing about dancing.
The judges focus on flexy Chen Kuan Jui and give him time to dance, and of course, he’s genuinely a very very good ballet dancer. He can get up with his toes and flip around and do all sorts of crazy stuff. But I really dislike his singing voice and I don’t know, I find him off-putting for no good reason. That’s not fair of me, but yeah, it’s where I’m at. Regardless, the judges give him 4 stars. ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ We don’t see it, but Dong Dong gets 1 star ⭐ and Sheng Yang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ .
Now we have a montage of G group groups: team Vietnam doing View, team Thailand doing Kokobop, and a Chinese group doing God’s Menu. The editing here is brought to you by MNET’s editing team, shown here at their most recent staff meeting.
We barely see any of these teams, so I watched their full performances on Youtube and will let tell you about it!
Team Kokobop:
A Thai duo who greet everyone with a sawadee ka. Zhang Hao from Yuehua (good looking guy with auburn hair -- we’ll meet him soon) tells Ricky from Yuehua (distinctive blonde guy, giving us Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys vibes) that he wants to be friends with the Thai guys because he likes Thai food.
Winnie, from FirstOne Entertainment, claims his specialty is freestyle dance. He’s 24. I’ve seen his name spelled Winne, but more official sources spell it Winnie. He’s a member of nugu group NINE.i -- two other members of that group are on the show, but they’re Korean, so we’ll meet them later.
Nice is an individual trainee. He’s 22. He seems scared to look up or into camera lenses.
My Thoughts:
They perform Kokobop, and I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m a huge EXO-L (my bias is ALL OF THEM) and I really love this song, so I know it well. Winnie was actually pretty decent, singing a really difficult song. He was a little sharp here and there but really not that bad. He also looked pretty comfortable and hit the dance moves reasonably well. I never know what the Korean public thinks looks good, but I think his styling isn’t working for him. He’s wearing way too much foundation, that shade of hair color doesn’t suit his skin, and his contact lenses just give him an unearthly, fake look. He looks better in some photos I’ve seen of him online, like this one:
Winnie, I hope for good things for you going forward.
Nice was terrible vocally; the dancing was ok but the vocals were unacceptable. He also looked really, really shy -- like he can’t even make eye contact with the camera. I think he is way out of his league, bless him. You’re very cute, Nice. I assume you’re rich or you wouldn’t be here, so I hope your personal wealth cushions the blow when you are rightfully kicked off. (Smash cut to Nice making the final line up because he’s cute….???)
MNET editing was pretty kind, honestly. Nice can only benefit by being edited down. He’s like the shark in Jaws -- looks great as long as you don’t see him for long. The judges give Nice 0 stars, and give Winnie 1 star ⭐ .
Next up is a G-group team: Team God’s Menu
Oh, these poor guys. They look good in their outfits, to be fair, but poor guys. Non-native speakers of Korean, trying to do this song? As someone said online, “Their souls probably left their bodies when they found out they had to do this song.” I’m trying to think of a group who could cover this song and do it justice. Monsta X probably could. And I mean, of course BTS could. Probably Hui or Jeon Soyeon could do a cool remix that would suit their own teams. Regardless, this is not an ideal song for a rookie group of non-native Korean speakers.
I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m not obsessed with Stray Kids but I do like them (my bias is Changbin!), and I love love LOVE this song. Here’s my take:
Xuan Hao also appeared on Youth With You 3, which I didn’t watch. He ended in 62nd place and apparently also uses the name “Swen.” He says on his initial profile worksheet that God’s Menu is his favorite song, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that he did a great job here. His dancing was sharp when it had to be sharp and fluid when it had to be fluid, and his singing was on key and on the beat. He’s a better singer than I.N. anyway. Yes I said it: I.N. is not a good singer. Come find me and kill me for it, I guess? That’s the kind of thing you should end a human life for, right? Anyway, I like Xuan Hao.
Lin Shiyuan was apparently once a Cube trainee, but is now independent. He has the job of rapping Changbin’s intro rap. He doesn’t do very well. He very noticeably rushes the beat pretty much every time it’s his turn to vocalize in any way, maybe because he’s nervous, and his pronunciation is not great. He had definitely learned these complicated dance steps, but he wasn’t dancing them, just doing them. I could see the fear in his face, and when he wasn’t singing or rapping, you could almost see him counting the steps. When they were flipping the pancake, he didn’t look up to wait for it to come back down, which is 90% of the fun of that move. I can’t blame him and I’m not blaming him. Poor guy.
Feng Junlan actually did pretty well. His rapping was on the beat and sounded good, and his dancing was precise. He looked up when they flipped the pancake -- it makes such a difference. If the judges have any sense that have to have noticed how well he did.
When I tried to watch it to focus on Chen Liang, Feng Junlan kept stealing my attention. Liang did fine dance wise, as far as I could tell (but didn’t look up when they flipped the pancake!), but his vocals were very off key (if at least more or less on the beat).
The judges are kind in their manner, but not generous with their stars.
Xuan Hao gets 1 star ⭐ , which seems too low to me.
Lin Shiyuan gets 1 star ⭐ , which must be for the dancing.
Feng Junlan gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems low to me, but I’m glad it’s not 1 or 0.
Chen Liang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems high to me.
Team View - Vietnam
My thoughts:
Obviously, like any sane person, I love this song.
Basically, none of their performance gets shown, but you guys, they were pretty good! Honestly, they sang on key and tried to keep their energy up and yeah, I don’t speak Korean but I know this song well and it didn’t sound awful. Check it out on Youtube and see for yourself -- compare their singing to that of Haruto’s and you’ll see what I mean.
The judges give 22-year-old Cong just 1 star ⭐ , which is cruelly low, and give 19 year old Dang Hong Hai 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which is ok, I’m on the fence between 2 and 3 for him. But it’s like the judges are watching these auditions from Minhyun’s space station. And maybe… I don’t know… is there a little racism? Just a little bit? Against these two Vietnamese trainees?
From what we can tell from the editing, the judges really dinged them for their pronunciation, as if that matters the most? As if the ability to sing on key isn’t, perhaps, more important?
In an interview, Cong says, in Korean, that he practices Korean every day. His pronunciation is pretty bad, though. You probably wouldn’t guess from hearing it that that was Korean, but if you listen closely you hear the Korean verb endings. It must be so hard for someone coming from a tonal language, like Vietnamese or Chinese, to learn a non-tonal language like Korean. I think it’s much easier for Japanese speakers to speak Korean -- they’re totally different languages but have similar sounds in them. (To be technical: Japanese and Korean are not related at all, but they have similar phonemes, which are the basic sounds you make when you speak. Korean has additional vowel sounds that Japanese doesn’t have, and there are other small differences, but if you can pronounce one language it wouldn’t be too hard to learn to pronounce the other.)
Then we get a mini montage about how much global trainees want to be kpop idols. Thai trainee Winnie says (in what sounds like very good Korean) that he wanted to be an idol since he was a kid. He turned down an opportunity with a very prestigious university, Chulalongkorn University (it’s the highest rated university in Thailand) in order to come to Korea and pursue this dream. -- in the audience, Kim Ji Woong, a 24-year-old individual trainee we haven’t met yet but who I assume is handsome,* mutters, “Can I go to that school in your place?” which strikes me as… super sad. Like, there’s stuff going on here we don’t know but can kind of guess.
*I have to say things like “I assume this person is handsome” because my standards of handsome/not aren’t always the same as everyone else’s. For example, I think that Chen is the best looking member of Exo. I think all of these boys are nice looking, and some of them are cute or charming, etc, but I can’t always tell who is going to be the “visual King” or whatever for a given season.
At 55:36, we see Qiu Sheng Yang (who we met earlier, in Tiger Inside), then his teammate, the flexible Chen Kuan Jui, then Osuke, a Japanese trainee we haven’t met (he’s going to do Crown), then Min, the Thai trainee who did Glitch Mode, all talking about how much they admire Korean pop music, all to the tender strains of gentle piano, and Koreans everywhere smile in satisfaction, I guess.
And that’s enough for one post! Part II will be linked here.
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HI. This is a test post, so its just gonna sit there- Im not too experienced in blogging so srry if its kinda boring, just hoping sw can relate or something.
SO. Today I went to a party w lots of people nd stuffed my big back mouth w cookies and empanadas (idk if there's a word for it in english- its like stuffed dough) so Im not having dinner today- Instead imma stay in my room nd watch a movie, or read, or play idk. OH right now Im reading 100000000 books, nd I usually tend to let em rot for weeks lmao. The last book I read was Girl Interrupted. Im reading Wuthering Heights (my mom's rec), Pride and Prejudice (literally started almost 2 years ago wth), The Name of The Wind (SO good, it's my brother's) and Before December (a wattpad book, gift from my friend. She literally wrote little messages on it-). Also for Philosophy we're probably gonna read a book too, but we gotta vote (Idk whether I should choose Metamorphosis or The Portrait of Dorian Gray).
Help Im yapping so much- its a test post soooo more yapping yay (say yay 🔫) Well, there's a lot of book stuff going on, so Im not gonna bore you anymore. Y'ALL THERE'S LIKE A STUDENT EXCHANGE TO GERMANY AT MY HIGH SCHOOL AND I DON'T KNOW IF MY FATHER WILL LET ME GO UGHH. My mother says she is 90% sure he will say yes. 90%?! THAT'S NOT SURE ENOUGH. So anyway, Im gonna lure him; I'll make him a sweet from my country he's been asking me to do for a long time hehe (used a translator here cuz I was lazy). Lmao the literally traduction to english is bacon of heaven (its NOT bacon, I swear-). OK time to yap about the exchange. I'll go to a rich town in Germany nd the germans will go to my goofy aah poor town yay, nd a month before the exchange we'll get our german's number so we can chat and get to know. Im so freaked out cuz what if she doesnt like me- WHAT IF SHE MURDERS ME AND HIDES MY BODY. So yea. Also Im VERY. VERY. Awkwards when it comes to social stuff. PEOPLE DONT GEIT IT RAAAAAH making friends is VERY challenging, nd I usually make friends just because of music tastes, or because of how rotted is my brain or wtv, but others are just like- "Hey, we're friends now. Yay, lets paint our nails nd flash our boobs! (help Im sorry-)" I cant do that. Oh god this blog is LONG. Appreciate if ur still here, hope my misery amuses you. Anyway. I hate my clothes. I need money for clothes, but if I spend it in clothes HOW DO I BUY MORE BOOKS (YES. MORE BOOKS.) Also my brother's a sweetheart, he gifted me a reading light (out of context). So yes. Ik its dumb, but its bugging me so much- And I dont wanna ask my parents for money cuz the exchange to Germany aint cheap.
I dont study shit. Like, I do my hw and pay attention nd all, but I dont study at all and all the subject is coming up on me- Mostly Biology, History.. The more theoric subjects, the others are easy. Dont take me wrong, Math is hell and I like Biology. It's just that studying Math is just doing LOTS of exercises, nd Biology is pure memory. SCHOOL. NO MORE SCHOOL. BURN IT DOWN NOW. Just realized tis is way too long-
bye
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castle 7x9 last action hero
the action movie episode liveblog
hard kill garbage earbuds sus person running person dead person!! Love the music btw talking out loud to himself
Aw I love 90s beckett's style Oooh allclads are a good brand! But bex is right, some pans just Work Better, you can't just live life with a full set of one, you need a couple mismatched ones thrown in there too. & it has pictures in it.
Cousin sofia! Nice Bex offended mr kuniak XD ofc he never said anything, that'd be impolite
Hohhhh her puppydog sleeves <3
raises crime scene tape uwu He's that guy! Esposito's face of "Really castle? HIM above any of the OTHER action heroes?" RC: Ex-Navy Seal Zen master Rico Cruz? With the catch phrase “Time to hit Cruz control”? JE: Yeah, I was never a fan. KR: Me either. What’s he done lately, anyway? JE: Yeah, right? RC: (seriously) Beat leukemia. KR+JE:
Lanie <3
LP: Cause of death is clearly strangulation by ligature. KB: A narrow ligature, from the looks of it. KR: Made by a thin wire tied to two wooden dowels? KB: KR: CSU found this in a dumpster. KB: A garrote? Who would use one of those? JE: Special forces will sometimes, when they want to kill quietly. RC: The bigger question is how they got the drop on Lance Delorca. KR: Uh, Lance played an action hero, Castle. Doesn’t mean he was one. RC: Au contraire, mon frère. Thank you transcript for actually saying that, screw you captions. I speak French, I want to see the words. If hearing bilingual people can understand the french, Ddeaf/hoh ppl should be able to have that same opportunity. RC: Lance was born in Spain where, before he became an actor, he was a member of the CNI, the Spanish Intelligence Agency. He was black ops. This man was a lethal weapon. Me then: Wow, that's so fake, he wouldn't become an american actor. Jon Huertas: *was in the military, poor guy, before becoming an actor & is literally Esposito in this very show* But then again, I have a friend from Israel/Sri Lanka (I think he grew up in israel but was originally from sri lanka, idk) & he was in the air force for thirteen years but I met him as a cheap cafe sandwich maker in the banquet cold kitchen. I mean he left that job a couple weeks ago for private security but other than that. My point is, being n the military does not denote your future, you can escape your past.
Love the music btw
*Knows it word for word* RC laughs. He notices KR+JE’S looks. RC: I was raised by a single mother. Hard Kill was how I got my brotime. KR: That explains so much. JE: Mmhmm.
JE: Yeah, the guy from The Indestructibles movies, where all the badass action heroes band together for one last mission. KR: Before they die of old age? JE: Hey. That’s a great film. And so was the sequel. Sequels are never good bro KR: (sarcastically) Yeah.
KR: The redhead, she’s an archaeologist? That strains credibility. (XD casually sexist) JE: Yeah, in a good way. KB: Hard at work investigating, I see. They all turn around quickly. (Love her)
Castle being sort of helpful while just watching movies *pushes esposito out of the way a bit* why garroute, not garawt? KB: I know what her name is. While you were having your B-movie festival, I tracked her down. She’s in New York. She’s shooting a film and she’s on her way in now. *Esposito's face lights up & Castle accidentally hits ryan*
love the music XD but bex, let Castle find girls pretty in the past tense, he had her poster on his wall when he was younger & def before he met you that is ok.
oh no Another indestructibles? before they all die of old age? Yay friends Wow guns Cheesy is not bad KB: The real miracle is how a girl like that’s hanging out with a bunch of guys old enough to be her grandfather. She's not wrong
RC: Hi, Mr. Harmon. Huge fan. Huge fan. (he holds out his hand for a shake) I – I’m – it’s an honor – honor to meet you. Brock Harmon: The honor is mine. I’ve passed many an hour in the john reading your books. (in the washroom but still, he reads em! Love it when two celebrities are fans of each other lol)
Sometimes they say first names, sometimes they say last names.
When castle said that I just thought "Jon huertas was drawing on his past as an airman to play a detective (who used to be a green beret)" but also I miss the days when Castle said smart stuff
Just so happens that everyone they need is in new york i love it
I know why they are "stonewalling" her heheh oh yeah she has "guys" in washington now!
Why Hard Kill of any of the ppl he's played?
KR: (reading the tagline) “Time to hit Cruz control.” Maybe that’s what I need, a catchphrase. (he lowers his voice) Time to meet hard justice. Time for prison time. (nOOO I HATE IT MY FACE IS CAUGHT BETWEEN A CRINGE & A SMILE JHDSKJHSDFJ) XD on second thought: don't. clipping.
Oh yeah I remember this stuff. Man's a regular little robotics high school student!
Oh yeah sobriety. Loev the set behind them too lol
Ooh I noticed the commotion in the background this time! Man holding his face!
Classic action movie other wife XD
{But Castle couldn't tell that this man was NOT ex-cni? He got beckett's entire life story so why is this like this?} btw I want a fanfic where castle pulls the same trick he did on beckett to learn abt esposito & ryan's lives
espt layers upon layers isexy
Enrique Gomez: He needed a bodyguard. Somebody he could trust. And I know such people. But none of them were available on such short notice, so I couldn’t help him. I mean yeah no yeah that's how things go
At least he ASKED his friend I mean Tavi was a sheep herder too! But then he became an operative! & wanted to be a lawyer! & then became captain of the army! & then became the king of the entire nation!
Aww castle so depressed deeply personal XD Tori *pops out* *pops back in*
Earology XD but also acupuncturists might know a lot, I feel like that could be a plot point in a future episode & the shows the little animation XD like girl why not just say "I have an ID" & give the ID & if they ask say "I compared her ear shape to pictures of women connected to Lance DeLorca" & show the green pic of the scan but since you already compared it, you don't need to compare it to any more (which is where we got that pretty ear shape animation from)
not quoting, rather clipping, but the captions are incorrect so beware
I like how dark the obs room is in comparison to the inter room but the box is still so dim
set smth right! Words we've said before!
RC: My opinion is not affected by her skimpy outfit. I’m speaking as an objective investigator. Someone who has set their personal feelings aside. KB: Along with your poster? RC stops abruptly. RC: Who told you? It’s Ryan, wasn’t it? Apparently everyone knows ryan as the blabbermouth. "She's going away with her boyfriend!" "It only proves that Ryan has a big mouth" like girl this is a minor character trait for him at this point
Yay I'm hopefully getting my meds filled! I went to the hospital for self harm & suicidal motives on wednesday & I still haven't gotten my meds yet *goofy face emoji* but now I am yayay
why does ryan say "except for her story is still holding up" instead of "except that her story is still holding up" but ig it's better "except FOR the fact THAT her story.."
slaps ryan's mouth XD
her fridge is EMPTY
THANK YOU! Thank you Lanie for giving us all this information, all the reminders of the past, the explosion, the best apartment ever! Also I totally thought that they were going to kiss & then I forgot this isn't fanfiction. Btw we need more femslash in fandom. Straight women, we need you! Lol wine in ceramic mugs
Ooh Ryan's outfit! It was good yesterday but now it is also good today!
Hollywood style one at a time fight, castle's face, espt's face, castle's face, espt's nodthe MUSIC, man he did a great job choosing the right instruments for this!
Reminds me, I was in martial arts as a kid (& I wish I could go back but college is awful & nobody should have to work more than five hours a day /gen /revolution /ubi) & some friends of mine got into a fight at mcdonald's & they TOTALLY should have asked for the security footage!
btw, kicks are low not for their face
You get sides of pork, not sides of beef. Cattle are cut into quarters. Sorry lol I took a meat fabrication course in college
Standing in a very fenton oconnell type way there huh
JE: AD says his name is Ernest Howe. He’s playing ISIS militant number twelve. KR: Not for long. You know what time it is? It’s Ryan time. KR walks, JE follows him. JE: Please. Just stop. KR: Name’s Ryan and I hate lyin’. (he flashes his badge) JE: Oh my god KR: Ernest Howe! NYPD. not clipping too embarrassing KR: Oh, you’ve got trouble. Ryan trouble. JE hangs & shakes his head EH, softly & deeply: I don’t know what that means.
add to 1x7 when esposito & ryan were about to fck "moot" btw love espt's outfit. "put the hurt on all of you" sounds like irish, "there is hurt on me" or "there is hunger on me" is how irish sentences work
wait then why were you there beating on him in the alley? Or maybe they couldn't connect him to any of the assaulters, he just looked kind of like them
Ryan mr narco didn't notice? well ig it has been like 9 years since then...
love a good old middle aged dude
RC: I’ve learned that every good fiction contains a kernel of truth. Mr writer
BH: Say, the gang and I are going out for drinks later tonight. How’s you like to come with us? RC: RC: BH: Castle?
RC to KB: You are my boyhood dream.
XD that little run! He's a teen girl I love him!
There is NOT enough space for three broad shouldered adlult men to sit in a caar together
BH: Somebody takes out one of our own, we take him out. Valid ig? but castle is right: Oh, guys. Hey. Listen. If your plan is to go to the club and steal that slot car, no, that would – that would taint the evidence. Rolf Magnus: Actually we can compel the DA to consider it, since the car technically belonged to the victim, Lance. Wow actually smart lol
Where is Castle? Oh wait that's him. When did Castle change? Cool guys don't look at explosions
Love the heist comp XD. & they call him el jeffe XD I love the triframe but castle is conspicuous Lol always check, esp if you don't want to create a distraction Now get gone he's only on his way you can still get gone! Pull the fire alarm! Oh good for her lol
KB: You’re telling me that this was handed to you by a concerned citizen? RC: Uh … yes.
KB: And reward you for your []illegal behavior? (she shakes her head) I think not.
& then she livetells him anyway?
They be f*ckin' /j "omg this is not what I expected to be listening to"
yk what trey, that's valid. But also dude maybe ask for help yk what the DA might feel bad for you but also girl go to the authorities at that point maybe except that yk how cops are but at least theyd arrest boothe for conspiracy to commit murder
What did the blood bone marrow donor have to do with all of this?
he's your real dad & blood bone tests showed that?
ryan weird with the vest half open tbh
Ohhhh his son that's how this was involved!
WOAH THE JEWELRY WIRE IS THE SAME!?!? I don't think Lance was trying to ruin things, just trying to build a connection with a kid he's met a few times, his friend's kid, who just so hapens to be HIS kid.
Gates said good job to castle XD!
RC: I was just going to suggest the exact same thing. We’re starting to think alike now! As if they haven't been doing this since s1 XD KB: (laughing) That is horrifying. Okay, go cue up the movie, open up a bottle of wine. I’ll be home in a bit. I’ve just got a stop to make first. (& make popcorn!) RC: Well, if I’m thinking what you’re thinking and it’s to pick up a sexy archaeologist costume, don’t worry. (he drops his voice to a whisper) I’ve already got the whip. KB: *surprised pikachu*
but girl that's nice wood! & that is too good of a carving tbh
cinematic <3
Mkay so it's 17 & I started watching at 13.30 so that's 4.5 hours & 3 hours is already double my allotted time this was triple my alotted time which means it took me sextuple times the episode... then again a lot of it WAS spent trying to upload stuff to tumblr, at least 30m.
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What are your thoughts on tRoS
Okay so this has been in my askbox for four years geez I'm sorry. I apparently wrote something that I'll go ahead and paste it in below. The thoughts I had are similar to how I feel now: It could have been a much better film, but Abrams has a tendency to make mystery boxes and not plan out the ending, so the prior film threw a wrench in an already uncertain conclusion. Anyway here's the whole thing:
TROS...is a movie. Idk, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. JJ Abrams did what he could with what Ep 8 left him with, but also it's his fault that Ep 8 happened cuz of lack of planning, so he kinda dug himself in his hole. It's kinda gonna be difficult to talk about because I've only seen the movie once and I don't usually go back to theaters to rewatch films so I'm just gonna struggle; also I purposefully waited cuz I had no thoughts, but really I should have taken that as a sign that it was overall mediocre, because generally I have thoughts about a film right away if I liked it or disliked it. I did get spoiled on Ren, Leia, and Palpatine dying, but the only surprise out of the three was Ren. And even then it was like an "oh, okay then." I thought he was dead when Palpatine flung him, and I thought that was very unceremonious of the film to do that, but then he died a more noble way, so yay! I guess. Still weird he had to die, seemed kinda forced just so they could have a major character die. Which leads me to circle 'round to Chewy (we'll come back to the kiss later). I thought that was, once again, very cheap and quite unceremonious; my first thought was "Really? They're really going to kill off all the original trilogy characters?" (in this case meaning Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewy). And then they didn't let the characters mourn properly. And then they negated the anguish by having him be alive. How?! There was only one transport ship! I liked the festival planet as a concept. Ultimately the fact that a festival was happening meant nothing, though. OH, the kiss. Hooray, Reylo shippers got their wish although technically it was Ben not Ren but shshshshsh don't burst their bubble. I mean the whole scene after he crawled back up was leading up to it, and the scene earlier where she heals him had the same energy, so I'm not mad about it. [edit: still almost a bit odd though.] Her taking the last name Skywalker was so cheesy. I know cheesy things happen in Star Wars, but rarely does it ever feel so predictable [edit: in a bad way] (my reaction being "of course! of course she would"). It should have been she just...continues going by Rey. IDK, her taking the name Skywalker seems like something JJ thought was a cool idea and wasn't budging from.
The sequel trilogy is honestly kinda a bust for me. TFA is the only one that has the potential for substantial rewatchability, although even then that's dubious. (I remember going into the film thinking Finn was going to be the Jedi...)
Anyway I put the tl,dr above. Subsequent Star Wars media has been hit or miss, but I've heard good things about Andor and I still need to watch it. I'm not super optimistic about most of these other projects. The Mandalorian should have ended with season 2 and Grogu should not have returned (or the very least should have had Din go off on his own), but they don't know when to end a story I guess.
#star wars legends > modern star wars projects after swtcw (and even then that had some flaws but not quite the same as other projects)#(there were a few good things in rebels too but not the same)#i still have yet to watch the anime star wars stuff and I'm so curious to see how that turned out absjdkskj#sab answers#youvegotnomeansforwanderlust#bet you weren't expecting this ask to be answered after all this time huh lol#sorry it was kinda long that's how it was always gonna be though
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Chapter 7 | Superman (Ice Cream)
Summary: Every summer you work on your father’s strawberry farm with your three sisters. It’s a way to take a break from the big city but summers in the midwest are hot and they linger. This year, your father’s old and mysterious friend shows up to stay on your land for a reason yet to be determined. Din Djarin seems dangerous, but kind enough, and the two of you quickly become…well, let’s fact it…smitten.
Rating: (+18) for future and explict sexual content.
A/N: Hi friends! This chapter isn't as long as the others, but I've already got a head start on the next one!
Warnings: I can't find anything in this short chapter that would trigger anybody, so yay!
One can tell a lot about a person by their choice of ice cream.
For instance: Rhea likes honey flavored. It’s a rarity, but Scoops specializes in it. It meant she was sweet, though refined, and organic in these regards. Charlotte prefers amaretto fudge which implies she is a hopeless romantic and the kind of woman who loves vintage films (that alone says quite a bit). You prefer Superman. Maybe that meant the obvious; you’re the youngest and a little bit of a fledgling with a silly sense of humor. You like to be doused in color and leave a sweet taste on people’s lips (some say you’d do anything to please and they could be right).
And Din, well, you were surprised to find that Din ordered sherbert; raspberry and just one scoop. When you questioned his choice (not to say sherbert wasn’t tasty, but at an ice cream parlor it just felt wrong) he justified it by saying he didn’t like the texture of ice cream. Ice cream reminds me of snot, he says to you. You still haven’t gotten that out of your head (and was a bit turned off when you received your cone because of it).
Scoops is in the next town over. It’s a tourist town full of counter-culture fanatics and overlooks the stunning landscape of Lake Michigan. The beach is always packed with families toting cheap red coolers or wild young adults slathered in sunscreen. The air is light and clean with no trace of salt, but it’s a glorious kind of smell you’ve never been able to describe. Lake Michigan is something of mystery – after all, it’s one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world -- but its appeal might be because it’s watched you grow throughout the years. The great body of water is something of a deity, all-powerful and all-encompassing in its compassion and protectiveness.
The weather is still scorching, but while the ice cream helps, it melts quickly. Along the boardwalk where Scoops is located are dozens of shops all lined up in a neat row and bustling with smiling people, laughing with one another, and arms weighed down with chic looking boutique bags. Most of the population is wealthy because of its tourism and the ridiculous economic situation, so this comes as no surprise. Charlotte and Rhea fawn over the window displays, pointing out which expensive items of clothing they wish they could afford.
Charlotte squeals upon seeing a sundress with a silhouette that she couldn’t possibly deny; Rhea agrees enthusiastically. While they gaggle, you keep your eyes on some birds that dive for pieces of corn dogs fallen upon the walkway. There was a lot going on so it was only natural that your brain retreat to idle, given that you had little to no spending money in general.
“We have to go in,” Charlotte sings to Rhea. “We have to. I need it.”
Rhea admits that she couldn’t pass up the chance either but promises she wouldn’t buy the same dress. The two of them invite both you and Din inside, but you shake your heads, eager of the idea to be alone with one another. It was a risky thing, especially considering how your feelings for Din exposed themselves upon your face like traffic signs. While your sisters certainly knew of your schoolgirl crush on Din, they’ve made no indication they suspect Din of reciprocating those feelings. How embarrassing for you.
When the girls are out of view, door closing behind them with a ring of a silver bell, Din immediately turns to you with a grin. It’s a slight grin – the kind you wouldn’t have been able to notice had it not been for your keen observation of him. His thoughts, actions, and feelings show upon his face like a stroke patient’s might – a little lopsided and faint, but still genuine. You can’t help but wonder why he’s so hesitant to show any exuberant display around anyone else. Did that have anything to do with his family? Any past relationships? Even his career? The career you had no inkling of? It wasn’t like pulling teeth; getting him to chuckle seems easy enough, but his friendliness couldn’t be mistaken for jolliness in any sense of the word.
Either way, Din is smiling – albeit, faintly – as he appears next to you.
“Were you planning that?” he teases, spooning his sherbert.
You shrug, licking the sides of your waffle cone. “I was counting on it.”
The two of you smile at one another and continue your walk with pleasant conversation. You people-watch and he casually jokes around by creating exaggerated scenarios for each of them as they pass. (“That guy in the red swim trunks and sports shades definitely cheats on his girlfriend.”) You can’t help but wonder if you sound ridiculous by the way you snort with laughter each time he says something clever, but he grins pleasantly anyway. It’s difficult to not get a big head each time you manage to get him to do anything other than monitor his surroundings – you notice he has a habit of it, despite how hard he tries to pretend he doesn’t.
“Are you sure you don’t wanna try it?” you offer, ice cream cone melting a bit down the sides.
Din wrinkles his nose but sighs after a moment, maybe weakened by your puppy dog eyes. Wishful thinking. “Alright. Just for you.”
You smile widely with satisfaction, bringing the cone up to his lips. And just when he’s about to bend down to lick the sugary treat, you push the cone onto his face. Din blinks, expression blank, and you’re afraid you might’ve crossed a line. The colorful ice cream stains his chin, dripping down onto his neck, and then soils the collar of his t-shirt. You prepare for the blow, cringing a bit under his gaping. But just when you’re about to stutter an apology and run away, Din presses his lips in a thin line to stop himself from letting out a full-bodied laugh.
“Oh, you think that’s funny don’t you?” he raises his brows in jest.
You sigh out in relief. He’s clearly amused. “Yes actually,” you quip, donning a pair of innocent and fluttering eyes.
He nods a few times, lips pursed, and humming with consideration. “I see,” he muses, hands placing themselves on your hips and squeezing.
You shriek in a fit of giggles as he pushes you gently against the brick of a nearby building. It’s cold against your skin, but nowhere near as chilly as Din’s milky lips peppering chaste kisses against your cheeks. His lashes bat against you, tickling your cheeks, and you become sticky with fruity condensed milk as the gleeful bombardment continues. His name escapes your mouth between your humored twittering. He has you pinned between himself and a wall - you are quite literally trapped - and in front of the public no less.
He wasn’t ashamed of you.
It’s almost a reaction what happens next.
Your hands lock themselves around his neck, mouth pressing against his full lips for the very first time. The people surrounding you disappear, the noise of the busy street vanishing completely. You’d expected your first kiss with him to be serious, maybe even a little awkward with graceless fumbling. But the two of you are snickering against one another, the embrace as natural as breathing. He’s cupping your cheek with the caution he’d shown this morning; he must’ve been terrified you’d crumble beneath him.
You felt like you could.
He’s holding back, and you know this because his lips are soft and slow as a wounded butterfly with clipped wing. The hand that isn’t holding your cheek has pulled you in by the hips. It’s getting harder to breathe, even if it’s closed mouthed. He spoke and the world spun - but his lips make the world sing.
You’re the first to pull away, eyes fluttering open with an uncontrollable eagerness to perceive his countenance. What you expected, you can’t remember, because when you find his eyes still closed, relishing in the kiss with a full-bodied smile, you feel nauseous with excitement. It was almost too much.
Yet not enough at all.
The napkin around your ice cream cone is soaked, but you crumble it in a ball and bring it to Din’s face anyway. You pat against his cheek, wiping away as much of the ice cream as you could while he recovers. Some of it has collected on his dense mustache and you resist the urge to laugh at that.
He nods to himself like he’s trying to get a grasp on what just happened, eyes opening with caution to gaze into yours. He looks tired, but the kind that was delicious; the kind that you look forward to remedying. You must’ve taken an energy from him.
You hope you did.
Because he took it all from you.
He lets out a breathy laugh and you place a thumb against his jaw to wipe some stray remnants from him. “I think I like ice cream now,” he jokes.
•••
The two of you manage to escape.
This is after Rhea and Charlotte come bouncing out of the store, bags in hand, and giddy smiles upon their faces. You laugh with them as they show you their purchases while Din looks on from the sidelines, knee bouncing with alacrity.
You’re weak by the kiss, the blush from your cheeks still prominent. You were positive your sisters would notice, that tonight they’d drill you with questions they already knew the answer to. Women have a way of knowing when another woman has been kissed as zealously as you just had. It wasn’t just the pink in your face that would give you away; it was the dreamy glint in your eyes, the bit of Superman that you’d missed upon Din’s cheek, and the trembling of each item they forced in your hands.
You say your goodbyes to your sisters, promising you’d be home in time for movie night, and skip alongside Din while walking to Bessie. When he’s sure the two of you are in the clear, he takes your hand and massages the space between your thumb and forefinger. Tension subsides in your shoulders.
This was new to you. You’d kissed guys as a teenager; even had a few boyfriends here or there. But that’d been years ago and none of them alighted a fire in your belly like Din has. His company was ethereal - he was made of stardust; you were sure of it. And it seemed silly - even a little frightening - that your feelings have evolved so quickly. For hells sake, you’d just met him a few days ago. Could you really be just, well, stupid? And maybe he was feeding off that stupidity for his own personal gain?
This thought alone makes you feel guilty. You try to ignore the anxiety and focus on the feel of his hand, tanned and masculine, and breathe. The smell of fried dough wafts from down the boardwalk, the tune of an old carnival song muffled in the distance by the chaos of summer. The sun was still high in the sky; it was only five in the afternoon but your body felt as though it’d been up for an entire day, weak with the intensity from such a rush of adrenaline.
Upon arriving to the car, Din opens the door for you and a bit of paint from devoted Bessie showers upon the pavement. You can’t help but wonder if he knew you’d leave early with him and the idea of bringing two separate vehicles was clouded with hidden agenda. This, of course, starts up the cycle of mental dramatization again.
Gods, why can’t you just leave it alone? Why can’t you feel something for once in your life? You’ve spent so many years hiding in the corner in fear of getting hurt – of opening yourself to be exposed to new and terminal wounds even if the process was liberating. And Din was liberating in more ways than one; in ways that have surprised you, despite how little you’ve known him.
As soon as he climbs in, you scooch as close as possible to his side. Your bravery surprises yourself, but you wouldn’t overthink it, especially when he smiles cheekily your way. You’ve leaned your head against his shoulder just before reaching for his free hand again and placing it in your lap with a tight grip.
You may get hurt later. But for now, that pain was worth experiencing. Din Djarin already seems to be worthy of experiencing.
Bessie rumbles to life but he starts for the crown of your head first, lips brushing against you, and light as a feather.
•••
If Din hadn’t been such an experienced driver, he was sure he would’ve crashed by now.
No. He was positive he would’ve crashed. It was nearly impossible to concentrate on the plainness of the road when a goddess was sitting in the seat beside him, holding his hand, and gazing out into the fields you rush past. You exuberantly point out each time there was a farm where cattle and horses grazed, their tails flicking to shoo away flies. He realizes that you love cows (“especially the brown ones,” you had smiled) and makes a mental note of it.
The house is in view now, the strawberries blooming the land with color beneath their plants’ emerald leaves. Your sisters hadn’t beat you there and your father’s truck wasn’t parked in front like it normally was. Not that it would’ve mattered that his friend was home, but Din preferred your father find out…later; when Din felt confident in your feelings for him and you felt confident in his. You were too important to risk losing so soon or even at all.
And that terrifies him.
And just when Din’s about to turn onto the road that leads directly to the house, you gasp beside him.
It frightens him. He isn’t well acquainted with your exclamations yet, so it was hard to distinguish whether your outburst is harmless or exclaimed in the face of danger. He pauses, foot stepping on the brake pedal, and lunges Bessie forward with too much exertion. Upon instinct, he reaches out an arm to prevent you from slamming yourself against the dashboard by the sudden halt.
He immediately looks to you, brows furrowed in concern, and chest heaving with epinephrine. “What is it?!” he jolts out.
You’re staring into the nearby woods with narrowed eyes, silent as a bug. The thicket and vines wrap themselves around one another, graceful in their disorganized summer. Din couldn’t find any movement interrupting the overgrowth, but he had a suspicion you’ve seen an animal of some kind. What else could have caused you to gasp so randomly?
Something pretty incredible, apparently. Because just as Din’s about to repeat himself, far more concerned with your silence than anything, you swing open the rusted door and sprint into the woods.
{ Tag List: @steeevienicks, @hallway5, @t3a-bag, @dodgerandevans, @lumimon47, @dancingwiththeplanets }
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Simplified Bookbinding: Font and Text Ornaments
In the first post in this series, How to Make a Cheap First Book, I set out the four steps of bookbinding:
1. Format the text and print it. (This post is all about this step.)
2. Create the text block.
3. Create the case.
4. Attach the case to the text block.
In this post, I’ll give some pointers to get your story from a word processor, or an AO3 story, to a printed page. There are two main formatting sections: (1) the intro pages like the title page and the “about this book” page:
And (2) the text of the book, which may include specialized chapter title font and text separators:
Formatting tips and pics under the cut.
I use Microsoft Word for formatting and printing. I know one method and I stick to that, and I use basically the same formatting process on every story. I get overwhelmed if I have to do something specialized every time or have too many choices. So look at this tutorial as your starter pack, and once you get comfortable, branch out and get as fancy and specialized as you want.
In the Simplified Bookbinding method, we print on A5 pages, which makes the pagination a whole lot easier than printing signature booklets. I have two separate files per book - the intro pages are one file; the text is a second file. This way I don’t have to figure out how to suppress page numbers on part of a file. The intro pages file does not have page numbers; the text file has page numbers.
Page Setup in Word
1. Open a new document.
2. Click “Layout” then “Size.” You need to tell Word that you’re printing on A5 size paper. If the dropdown menu doesn’t include A5, then click on “More Paper Sizes” at the bottom of the menu and fill in the A5 size manually. It’s 5.83 wide by 8.27 high:
Click ‘OK’ and let’s get started putting text on the page.
The Intro Pages
Go pull a professionally published book off your shelf and look at the title page. You’re going to format your title page basically the same way. It’s going to have the title, the author and maybe a text ornament. Center it on the page.
I googled the name of the fandom to get a text block that says “The Old Guard.” A recognizable symbol for that movie is the main character’s labrys, so I googled “labrys line drawing” and snipped it. I titled my story “The Next Job” because I lack the fanfiction ability to select beautiful lines of poetry for story titles. Not as lovely, I’ll grant you, but it fits better on the spine of a book. Anyway, play around with your formatting until you like how it looks. Print a test page.
This is a good time to find out how to print on A5 paper. My printer has a paper size option in the menu, in which I could select “A5″ and then just push the paper holder in the tray for the smaller paper. If you don’t have a printer or can’t connect it, then . . . um, problem. Some bookbinders send print jobs to Staples or other office supply shops. You would have to ask them about printing on custom sized paper and see what they charge. (If you’re going to have it printed at a shop, don’t use easily identifiable text ornaments unless you want to explain to the print shop employee why you aren’t violating copyright laws.)
Depending on your fandom, you may be able to find a fun text ornament that identifies your fandom, like the Avenger’s symbol, a Star Trek symbol, Star Wars, whatever fandom you’re in, I’m sure there’s a graphic you can use. Things like these:
Now we’re going to format the “about this book” page. Look at a professionally published book. This is where you have the copyright information and publisher information. I put in basic information in a list format. In most of my books, I put in a word count and which font I used, just so I can keep track of about how many pages a word count will be. You can put in different info.
On a third page, you can format the author summary and any author notes you want to include. I keep author notes that talk about what the story means to the author. I don’t keep author notes that are basically apologies for not updating often enough. That’s entirely up to you.
So those are your intro pages. It’s 2-4 sheets of paper. I always set 4 blank pages in front of the title page. You’ll notice that professionally published books have a few blank pages before the title page as well. I also put 4 blank pages at the end of the book.
Story Text Pages
Now we’re going to format the actual story. There is a page limit to how much you can bind into one book when using this Simplified Method. You’re limited by the size of the binder clips used in perfect binding. Yep, true, binder clips are your limiting factor. The most I can usually get into big binder clips is about 225 sheets of paper. It varies depending on your paper weight. Take out about 12 sheets for intro and end pages, and that leaves me about 210 printed pages, which double-sided is 420 pages of text. The max word count I’ve bound in one book is 140,000 words. You can bind lengthy works but you will have to play around with margins and font size to keep the number of pages to something that fits into the binder clips.
1. Open a new Word document.
2. Set the paper size to A5 the same way you did for the intro pages document.
3. I always set all four margins to 0.7 just to get more words on a page. I wouldn’t go much smaller than that. You can keep your margins at 1 inch if you want, and I would recommend it if you’re printing less than 50,000 words.
4. Insert page numbers.
5. Go to the story on AO3. Make sure you’re in the “Entire Work” view because it’s a pain to cut and paste chapter by chapter. Press Ctrl-A to “Select All.”
6. Navigate back to your document. Press Ctrl-V to paste the entire mess into your document.
7. Save the file. Save often. You don’t want to lose your formatting.
8. Delete all the stuff that isn’t story text. The “Select All” will have picked up all the buttons and the kudos list and comment box and everything. Just delete it all until you only have text left. The text will have spacing between paragraphs, no indents, chapter headings in the middle of pages, and so forth.
9. When you’ve got nothing but text, press Ctrl-A again to select all the text and we’re going to do some basic formatting. With all the text selected, make these changes:
a. Change the font to Gentium Book Basic 12 pt. (There are hundreds of fonts to choose from. I stick to Gentium Book Basic 12 pt or Book Antiqua 12 pt for the text of the story.)
b. Get into the paragraph format menu. Change the spacing Before and After to 0, and add a first line indent of 0.3. On an A5 page, the standard indent of 0.5 is too deep.
Click out and your page count should change drastically to something pretty close to what your finished page count will be.
10. Now we’re going to format the chapter headings. If you’re in a highly merchandised fandom, you’ll be able to find custom fonts that you can use for chapter headings. Some are free to download. I’ve got the font for Frozen and another one for Star Trek.
Fun, right? If you don’t have a fandom-specific font, I recommend using Narkisim or Baskerville Old Face for chapter heading text. Both are included with Word.
a. If you have more than a couple chapters, it’s easier to set a Heading to auto-format your chapter titles than it is to select text, change font, and center for every single chapter. To do that, format Chapter One the way you want it. Select font, font size, center it on the page (you’ll have to turn off that 0.3 first line indent for just the chapter heading text). While you have your chapter heading text formatted and selected, go to the Home menu and right-click on Heading 2, then select the top option: “Update Heading 2 to Match Selection”. I couldn’t get a snip with the right-click, but this is what you want to right-click on:
Then for your next paragraph, just select the text of chapter number and title, click Heading 2, and it automatically applies all the formatting for you. Yay!
b. With the copy and paste we did to get the text from AO3 into Word, the chapters may start in the middle of a page. Make sure you press Ctrl-Enter at the end of a chapter to start the next chapter on a new page.
c. If you want to insert a text ornament at each chapter heading, that can be fun. If that’s too much right now, don’t worry about. I didn’t start using text ornaments until I had done about 15 books. You’ll have to work to get the text ornament the right size and positioned under the chapter heading text.
Are you done with chapter headings? Moving on!
11. Scene breaks. You know those places inside a chapter where there’s a scene break? Go look at a professionally published book. Many will just have a double space between paragraphs to mark a scene break. That’s probably the easiest way to mark a scene break. Go right ahead and do it that way.
12. Text separators at scene breaks. If you want, you can put in a text ornament to mark a scene break. There are full line text ornaments, or tiny text ornaments:
I found all my text separators by googling ‘images text ornaments’ or ‘text dividers’ and then snipping from the screen. Here are a few I haven’t used yet, which aren’t quite as blurry as everything I take a photo of (sucky camera phone):
To get a text ornament on the page of a Word doc, you go to “Insert” and click on “Pictures” and then select your image file. Then you have to resize it and position it, plus curse because it knocked all your text out of alignment, wonder what the purpose of image anchors are, drag, accidentally drop it in the middle of the paragraph, discover that Word has green guidelines that appear at random. I tell you what, text ornaments are a real treat. I just like them, okay? I like the way they look, I mean, they are annoying to work with. I did discover that once I have it resized, I copy that image, and then paste it into the next scene break rather than inserting the image from file again. That way I know all the text ornaments are the same size.
All done? Got it all formatted? Looks so great, doesn’t it?
Take a deep breath. Take a few days off. The hardest part is yet to come.
Printing
You’ll have to figure out how to print double-sided on A5 paper. I have very little advice here. It’s going to be you figuring out how to get your printer to cooperate. I’ve discovered that auto-double sided printing does not work on A5 paper. The print rollers just aren’t designed for little pieces of paper. My inkjet printer would auto-double-side on A5 paper, but it would offset the text on the front and back by a centimeter. My laser printer won’t auto-double-side at all on A5 paper. I manually double-side the pages. I can do it in batches of 20 pages at a time, so it’s not so bad.
If you are manually double-siding, make sure you know how to orient the pages when you stick them back in the printer. Instead of practicing on your actual book, just print pages that are blank other than the page number. Print pages 1-10 double-sided and see if you have to rotate the pages 180 degrees, or flip them over before putting them back in the paper tray.
Printing is a pain in the butt. Especially if you run out of toner partway through, or your printer starts printing a black line down the middle of every page. WHY??? It just does. It takes me about an hour to print about 80,000 words. I hope you will someday be more efficient than I am, but that’s how long it takes me.
Phew. Okay. Formatting and printing are done. Yay!! I’m very proud of you. That’s a huge job.
#simplified bookbinding#bookbinding#bookbinding for beginners#renegade publishers#renegade bookbinders#font and text ornaments#lindstrom2020#op
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Miraculous escape - Chapter 2
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 |
Thank you @alittleshycat for the header and wanted posters pic! 💙 Thank you @brickercupmasterx3 for proofreading! 💙
I’ve been into comedy lately for some reason... This chapter has been finished for a while, but I’ve been writing more of this story. It’s fun to write because they’re all stupid XD
A/N: Remember this story is Lukanette + Adrigami endgame.
Chapter summary:
The fugitive and disguised men arrive to Milan and set in their Hotel rooms and Rose holds a girls' pajama party.
AO3
_________________________________
Chapter 2: Arrival to Milan
The train arrived at Milan later than scheduled. Not that it surprised any of them - except probably Adrien who always rode bullet trains instead of cheap ones. Delays were part of the public transportation's everyday life (at least in Southern Europe).
It took them eight hours to reach the Italian city, and Adrien and Luka had mostly spent the time either sleeping (from exhaustion of the day before) or daydreaming about the girls that caught their attention. Juleka glared at them more than a few times too, reminding them to focus on their acting, but they pretended not to notice. She seemed to be having a good time with the short haired blond lady seated next to her, anyway.
During the ride, Madam Mendeleiev also assigned their hotel rooms: two members per room, sharing it with the person beside them during the train ride. That meant Luka and Adrien were assigned the same room, and Juleka and Rose and Marinette and Kagami would share theirs too. The men were relieved with the assignments- at least they could drop their acting during the night.
After arriving at the hotel, and leaving their suitcases at their respective rooms (courtesy of XY, who didn’t miss his chance to flirt again with ‘Lucia’- ew ), the band members reunited again to have dinner. Too bad for them, they didn’t get to share a table with Marientte or Kagami, but shared it with Juleka and Rose.
“Hey!” Rose called for their attention. “Why don’t we have a girls' pajama party here later, when Madam Mendeleiev is asleep?” she suggested.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea-” Luka started, but was blunty cut by Adrien.
“Oh, yes! A party! Yay! Let’s do it! It will be soooo much fun!” Adrien exclaimed happily, amicably joining the palm of his hands with the grinning Rose's.
“Yay! I’m going to tell the others!” Rose said, running to the other areas in little hops.
Juleka and Luka could only facepalm at Adrien’s reaction. It was probably his first ‘pajama party’, of course he would be excited. ‘Just be careful’, Juleka warned them, giving up at Adrien’s puppy eyes.
A few hours later, after assuring Madam Mendeleiev was pleasantly asleep, the boys changed into old fashioned nightgowns and moved to the Hotel’s bar, where almost all the ladies were already chatting and drinking together. Luka was disappointed to see how Marinette wasn’t there, and he soon left the party. On the other hand, Adrien was completely enjoying himself with the ladies. Chatting, laughing, singing, playing cards, fortune reading… The rich boy had never had so much fun in his life. Kagami had left early, but Adrien had made sure to stare at her as much as he could before his eyes couldn't follow her anymore.
Meanwhile, sick of his acting, Luka moved to a closed common room nearby. Dark and cold as it was, he didn't expect to find Marinette sleeping in one of the coaches, next to an incandescent lamp.
“Hey, are you ok?” He asked, shaking her a little. Marinette’s eyes opened all of a sudden, almost giving Luka a heart attack.
“Oh! Sorry!” She apologized. “Where am I?”
“You fell asleep in the common room. Can you walk...?” Luka asked her. She stunk of alcohol- lots of alcohol. Marinette nodded but almost fell down on her knees as soon as her feet hit the floor. Luka sighed. “Where's your room? I'll take you there”
“206” she answered, and Luka lifted her body to carry her in princess style. She was very light and he was probably enjoying her in his arms more than he should.
“Wow! You're so strong for a girl!” she said, in fascination, between hiccups.
Luka froze. *Shit* ‘ She’ll find out I'm actually a man at this rate! Think Luka, think! I need an excuse! ‘“It comes with carrying a guitar everywhere” he answered nervously.
But Marinette wasn’t really thinking. “That's amazing!” A short pause followed. “Wait! Put me down!” she demanded, and Luka obeyed, seating her on the coach again. “Let's have some girl talk before going to sleep!" she grinned.
Marinette's begging eyes were too much for his enamored heart and his body automatically answered. "Okay"
"Yaaay" she said loudly in a celebrating tone, between hiccups.
Luka gulped. She looked absolutely defenseless and beautiful in her pajamas. If he hadn't already fallen for her, he would have again at that moment. His long fingers threatened to betray him any moment, longing to feel her perfect skin under his touch. He bit his tongue trying to suppress his predator instincts and act like the woman Juleka expected him to be.
"Won't Madam Mendeleiev get angry if she finds us?" Luka asked, looking for an excuse to leave.
"She won't!" She assured, pouring more alcohol into her cup and taking a sip. "We'll just turn off the lights and hide, and that would do. Here." She offered him a glass. "Have a drink with me"
"Thank you. I could never say no to a drink" 'Let's hope it distracts me enough from my ‘naughty’ thoughts...'
"You know?" Marinette started, stopped by another hiccup. Luka carefully listened to her dreamy voice. "I thought you were a man at first…"
Luka choked on his drink. 'Oh, no. We've just arrived! Have I been found out so easily? I can't let her find out yet! We need to escape and-'
"Hahaha- really? No way. See? Breasts" he quickly answered, lifting his fake breasts awkwardly.
"I knooow. I'm just joking" she giggled, making Luka sigh in relief. "I haven’t introduced myself, have I? My name is-"
"Ma-Ma-Marinette, right?" Luka giggled, but stopped immediately after noticing her hurt expression. "Sorry, I didn't want to make you feel bad"
"No, it's ok. It's my fault for being so clumsy…" tears had started to form in her eyes and Luka felt his own heart hurt in regret.
"No, no! I should have been more sensitive. Sorry." He sincerely apologized.
"Thank you ugh- sorry. I don't think I caught your name…"
"Lucia" 'God I hate this name'
"Lucia. Pretty name. Are you from Spain? Or Southern France?" Marinette asked, curious.
"Yes, I'm from the Basque region" he lied to add credibility to his act.
"That explains your strength!"
"That's just a stereotype, Marinette… but who knows? Maybe I should try tearing a trunk in half with my bare hands sometime" Luka joked and Marinette laughed.
"You're so funny!" Her laugh sounded like the most beautiful melody in his ears, inspiring him to compose hundreds of songs. "Want more?" She offered him her bottle of alcohol.
"if you insist..."
Marinette opened the bottle to fill Luka's glass, but her trembling hands made her spill the alcohol on Luka's lap, surprising him.
"Oh, sorry! Your sleeping dress…" She lamented.
"It's fine. I'll ask for the hotel’s laundry service to clean it tomorrow and it will be fine" he smiled. 'how could anyone get angry at those beautiful regretful pure eyes? Impossible'
"What are these voices! Is anyone here!?" Madam Mendeleiev shouted from the aisle.
"Oh no! Hit the lights and hide! Here!"
Marinette pulled Luka's body strongly to hide him behind the coach, hugging him. During the minute they spent in that position, Luka forgot how to breathe, in awe of her softness and unexpected precise reflexes.
Madam Mendeleiev later moved toward the room where the girls’ party was taking place, and Luka could only feel sorry for Adrien. ‘ Good luck, my friend’ . But actually, he was more worried about himself, since the chest of the woman he liked was pressed on his face.
"Ufff… she's gone. Sorry!" Marinette stood up, offering her hand to Luka.
"No, it's fine…" he recomposed himself, shaking his head. "We should go back…" 'before the alcohol controls me and I do something stupid'
"Yes…Thank you for keeping me company, Lucia." She smiled.
“My pleasure" he smiled back. "I’ll go get Ad- Noirette first. Will you be fine on your own?”
“I guess so?” she answered, dizzily.
While Luka helped Marinette stand up, Kagami called for her friend, running towards them. “Marinette! I’ve been looking for you! Don’t tell me you’ve been drinking again? Are you ok?” she said, passing her arm under Marinette’s to help her steadiness.
“I’m perrrrffffect!” she said in a hiccup. “Thanks to Lucia! She’s soooo strong, you knowwww?”
Kagami’s eyes narrowed at Luka, giving him chills. But soon she apologized for her friend’s behavior, bowing her head at him. She also informed him she would take her to their room and thanked him for having looked after her friend. Luka excused himself to go look for ‘Noirette’. Kagami’s eyebrows frowned at his comment and started walking with Marinette.
“See you tomorrowwww, Luciaaa. Goood niiiiiighttttt”. With an exaggerated waving salute, Marinette almost fell straight to the floor in front of the elevator. Thankfully, Kagami made it in time to prevent the accident.
"Good night, Marinette. See you tomorrow" Luka waved back, blushing at her clumsiness.
'This is bad' Luka thought. His heart beat faster than ever. ‘ This girl is too damn cute. I’m going to fall in love for real if this continues... ’ Luka shook his head to snap out of his thoughts. Time to get Adrien back.
Back at the elevator, Kagami kept looking at ‘Lucia’ with judging eyes.
_____________________________________________
When Luka arrived at the party room he could see the girls (and Adrien) being scolded by Madam Mendeleiev. Not daring to show himself, he waited until they all returned to their respective rooms to meet with Adrien.
“Adrien! Are you ok? I saw that witch scolding you. Did you have fun at least?” Luka patted his back.
“Luka! Where were you? It was so fun until that old woman arrived… I’ve never had so much fun before! We drank, sang and played games… I love this band already. Do we really have to leave…?” Adrien mumbled, looking like he was about to cry. Luka could sympathize with his feelings.
“Sorry, Adrien. You know what will happen if your father ever finds us… I’m happy you had fun, though”
“Thanks. Where were you, by the way? I’ve been asking for you, but nothing”
“You won’t believe it! I got to spend some time with Marinette! Man, I thought I would pass out due to her cuteness. She’s too much for my heart…” Luka answered, grinning like a lovestruck fool.
“At least it went well in your case… I couldn’t even exchange a word with Kagami before she left, and she avoided my eye contact…”
“Tomorrow is going to be another day, don’t worry. It will go better next time, you'll see. Remember we have rehearsal all day tomorrow. We should sleep” Luka said, removing his wig. Adrien mimicked his action, nodding in agreement.
Suddenly, the door opened and the two men froze. ‘Oh no’
“It’s not what it looks like!” Luka screamed, followed by Adrien’s “What he just said!”
Juleka rolled her eyes from the door, going inside the room. The clueless musicians sighed in relief.
“Are you stupid? Why didn’t you lock the door before removing your wigs? Do you want to be found out when the escape just started?” she scolded them, who made apologizing puppy eyes at her. “I’m here to discuss your escape plans”
“Oh” they both responded, making Juleka sigh at their dumbness.
“It seems no one has figured out your true identity yet. The police are still looking for you in Paris and France, so you should be fine- at least for now” she informed them.
“Good thing there’s no internet or mobile phones in this story! That would make things very easy for them to spot us when we play with the band” Adrien said, more to himself or someone not present in the room than to his interlocutors.
“Ad, man, what are you talking about? What the heck is intern- whatever you said” Luka asked, confused.
“I don’t know. I had the feeling I had to mention it. Nevermind- I don’t know it either. Go on, Juleka” Adrien shrugged and let Juleka continue with her explanation.
“See? This is the band's schedule. We’re spending this week in Milan, then Verona, and then the band is going to perform in Venice. I contacted mom with my radio and she’s going to get us a motorboat ready to escape. I’ll have a radar prepared with the coordinates so we can meet in the sea with the Liberty- mom’s ship” she clarified for Adrien. ”That’s your escape plan. Make it to Venice, and it will be your win. Don’t screw it up! Understood?”
“Yes M’am!” they said in unison, doing a salute pose.
“Good. I’ll be here early in the morning for your make-up. Good night” she said, reaching for the door. “And lock the door next time” she warned before closing it.
Luka immediately hurried to lock the door and let his body finally relax and fall to the bed. “Let’s go to sleep… It’s been a long day…”
Adrien agreed, and just like that, the men fell asleep under dreams of beauties and the feeling of being chased by the demon himself.
#my fic#airip4#airipyon#fic: miraculous escape#they are stupiddd#which is fun to write#endgame lukanette#endgame adrigami#lukanette fic
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String - Part III
Prologue | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
Genre: angst, fluff, suggestive themes
Pairing: Baekhyun x Female Reader
Word Count: 2.9k
Summary: You find yourself in a friends-with-benefits situation with your best friend. You have no business falling for him, but your heart begs to differ.
Eight months had gone by since Baekhyun had seen Kira last. They’d been seeing each other the previous semester but then she got accepted to study abroad, putting their short term situationship to an end. Baekhyun liked her and she liked him; that was clear back then. The timing wasn’t right and Baekhyun had had hopes that they’d start seeing each other again once she got back. While she was in Italy, they’d texted some until their communications were reduced to comments on each others’ social media stories.
Baekhyun had been a bit jealous when he noticed a recurring man in her photos. He kept the details to himself but he did complain about his love life to you. She’d forgotten all about him, clearly and it bummed him out. The two of you had been up late watching tv and complaining about your love lives. He said, “This dating thing sucks, Y/N…”
And you’d said, “It does but complaining at two in the morning isn’t going to help you.”
And he realized you were right. A few days later, he decided to take control of his love life. “I know we’re still a little drunk but I wanna make you feel good. What do you think?” He didn’t know what came over him at the time. Some of it was the liquor and the rest of it was because he was tired of thinking about the girl he couldn’t even have. He thought, Why not have sex with someone I actually have a chance with?
Kira returned to the table, two donuts stuffed with ice cream in her hands. Baekhyun smiled as she handed it to him. “I told you I’d buy you ice cream when I came back,” she said. “Do you still come here?”
Baekhyun shook his head and took a bite. “I haven’t been here since the last time we came.”
Kira took a bite out of hers. Baekhyun couldn’t believe he was looking at her. He took in her beautiful face. Kira was never one to wear much makeup. He noticed that for the most part, she only wore mascara on her long lashes and lipstick on her full, plump lips. She got a tan while she was in Italy he noticed, her skin a golden brown. He didn’t take his eyes off of her during that first bite. The feelings that he had before came rushing back to him the moment their eyes met.
They stayed in the ice cream shop for an hour or two, just catching up and filling each other in on their lives. Kira had a lot to talk about and Baekhyun never got bored. Around eight, they got hungry for real food and ended up eating Italian food at a place called San Marzano. It was one of Baekhyun’s favorite places in the city because it was cheap and because the staff filled people’s wine glasses to the point where they could actually get drunk off of wine.
They ended up waiting around forty minutes but it was a nice evening and Kira didn’t seem to mind it, so they walked around East Village until it was time to make their way back to the restaurant. He and Kira had been on a few dates before but this seemed different. For some reason things felt more raw, more authentic. He felt so alive and in the moment. All he saw and could focus on was Kira. He watched her as she talked. He watched the way her lips moved and the way the corners would turn up into a smile every so often. He listened to the sound of her voice and how it was sweet, honey wrapped around her pretty little vocal cords. He watched her as she drank from her wine glass and how the lipstick she just applied got all over the rim of the glass. He watched as she ate her pasta and the sound of pure pleasure she made at the taste.
Baekhyun was on his second glass of Chardonnay when he felt like his heart was going to burst. Suddenly, he said, “I missed you…”
Though Baekhyun didn’t expect to hear this, she said, “I missed you, too.”
Feeling a little bold, he said, “Is it too late to pick up where we left off?” * The week seemed to drag on. You hadn’t been able to get Baekhyun alone for the past week. The times you’d seen him was when you were with your friends but you wanted to get him alone so that you could talk about your relationship. On Friday, you decided to text him as your shift ended. No one had made any plans of going out tonight so you figured the chances of him being free were higher.
[3:04PM] Hey, can we talk?
Baekhyun [3:32PM] What’s up?
[3:35PM] Are you free tonight?
Baekhyun [3:41PM] I’m going to dinner tonight. You’re still coming to brunch tomorrow though, right?
[3:43 PM] Yeah
Baekhyun [3:45PM] Let’s talk tomorrow then
You weren’t quite satisfied with talking to him tomorrow, being that Evie’s words were still haunting you a week later. Hell, even Sehun’s words were making you feel insecure. You still heard his voice clearly in your head. Kind of? You don’t seem too sure.
You wanted to talk to Baekhyun about where you stood as soon as possible but tomorrow would have to do. Plus, you’d both get drunk and probably end up having sex before the day was over. The thought of having sex with Baekhyun put you in a better mood. It’d been about a week and a half since the last time but you found yourself craving it more than usual. You hadn’t seen him as much since he’d been back and that was understandable, with work and school and everything. * You made it a point to do your makeup and hair in the morning. You put on the black thong that you wore the first time you had sex. You recalled the memory, like it was yesterday. You thought about the way he held you, the way he called your name, and how wild and unexpected it had been. It had been a while since you’d had a spontaneous moment with him.
When you were finished, you looked at yourself in the mirror and were proud of your look. Your lips had a slight tint of pink and your winged eyeliner was something that even the gods couldn’t duplicate. Not to mention that your eyelashes went on without a fuss! You wore a floral dress that flowed with the wind. It showed just enough cleavage to get a man’s attention but not enough to get him hard at the dinner table. You covered up with a jean jacket and grabbed your shoulder bag before heading out.
As you waited for the L train, Sehun crossed your mind. You felt bad about not texting him but you’d explained your reason to him. He didn’t need more than that. Hell, he was a good looking guy; you were sure he’d find someone. It just wouldn’t be you. Your heart was set on Baekhyun and Baekhyun only.
By the time you got to the restaurant, Baekhyun hadn’t arrived yet. You couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed; you wanted him to watch as you made your entrance into the restaurant and toward your table. Maybe it was a bit dramatic. You made your way to the back of the restaurant and greeted your friends.
“God, you look so fucking gorgeous,” said Sadie.
You smiled. “Thanks Sadie.”
Daren winked. “Fine as fuck.”
“Thanks guys,” you said, nearly blushing.
The group ordered the first round of drinks, keeping Baekhyun’s arrival in mind. And like clockwork, Baekhyun showed up and headed toward the table. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, taking his seat across from you.
“Lucky for you we just ordered a pitcher to start us off,” you said.
He chuckled. “Do you have a fashion show to go to after this?”
“Maybe…”
Baekhyun was always so playful, so flirty. He’d always been like this: flirting, making dirty jokes, and so on. He’d been like this even before that night the two of you crossed the line and had sex. Not much had changed other than the fact that you and Baekhyun occasionally would end up in each other’s beds for reasons beyond cuddling.
During brunch, you kept checking the time and were starting to get a little impatient. You wanted to talk to Baekhyun and, to be honest, you felt like your friends were standing in the way of it all. After what seemed like a painful hour and a half, the six of you left and stood outside. You assumed that you’d all go your separate ways until a tipsy Evie said, “It’s only one. It’s too early to go home!”
Then, Baekhyun turned to you. “Didn’t you say your roommates weren’t here this weekend? What if we come over?”
You honestly didn’t want to but after thinking it over again, you realized that going about things this way would be easier since Baekhyun was going to be in your apartment anyway. After everyone else left, you’d be able to talk to him about things and get under him later.
“Um, sure,” you offered.
Evie clapped her hands together. “Yay!”
Drew said, “We can go to that liquor store by your place and get a bottle right? How drunk is everyone trying to get.”
Daren scoffed. “As drunk as humanely possible.” * In case anyone was wondering, Daren did get as drunk as humanely possible and he spent the last thirty minutes of his stay at your apartment throwing up in the toilet because, apparently, he’d overdone it. And a drunk Evie pat his back and sang “Pocketful of Sunshine” while he threw up. Baekhyun supervised, leaning on the door frame. When you approached your friends, you said, “How are they? Evie didn’t start throwing up, did she?”
Before Baekhyun could answer, Evie chimed in. “Hey! I’m not that drunk.”
You laughed and turned back to Baekhyun. He said, “By the way, I’ll clean the toilet after he’s done.”
“Thanks.”
Daren flushed the toilet and wiped his mouth before Evie started helping him at the sink and handing him mouthwash. While they did that, Baekhyun went to work with the toilet brush and toilet bowl cleaner. Within the next ten minutes or so, everyone had started cleaning up the cups and bottles in the kitchen. You appreciated the gesture. As everyone started heading toward the door, Baekhyun followed.
You said, “You’re not going to stay?”
He frowned. “I would but Daren’s in bad shape. Drew left earlier and I think Daren would be better off getting in an Uber with me back to my place to sleep this off. Let’s hangout another day, just us, okay?”
You nodded, knowing that it would be selfish of you to complain when your friend was drunk and suffering. You accepted defeat and said your goodbyes. As the door slammed shut, you let out a sigh. Life had one point and you, on the other hand, had zero—another loss on your end. * You swiped on Instagram after your shower and came across Baekhyun’s profile. Clicking on his profile, you saw that he was watching Euphoria. You felt a pang of hurt as you recalled him saying that you’d watch it together. It was just a show and it wasn’t a big deal but you still couldn’t help but feel annoyed that he’d started watching it without you. When it came out in June, he was the one who asked you to wait until he came back so that you could watch it together.
You decided to reply to his story: Watching without me, huh?
He wrote back, Damn, I forgot. I’ll rewatch the first episode with you. Are you busy tomorrow?
I’m free. Come over.
You messaged him feeling a little annoyed but you felt so much better knowing that you’d see him tomorrow. Sex aside, you missed him. Sex was great but you just craved sitting on the couch and stuffing your faces with takeout. You missed just being around him, doing nothing; just the two of you.
You got in bed, excited to be seeing Baekhyun tomorrow after classes. Finally, some time alone with him. * Butterflies sat in your stomach for hours, fluttering and pushing against the walls, threatening to burst from your bofy. You felt the ticklish feeling until six o’clock as you grabbed Baekhyun’s favorite ten dollar bottle of wine from the liquor store near your apartment. Baekhyun said he’d get to your place around six thirty and you couldn’t contain your excitement.
When you got back your roommate Mya was in the kitchen cooking something that smelled delicious. You’d let her know earlier that you’d be in the living room with Baekhyun, just so that there was no issue with using the TV. Mya smiled as you came in. “Hey Y/N. I’ll be done in a few,” she said.
“No rush,” you said, putting the wine in the fridge. You sat at the counter. “What are you making?”
“Just some beef stew. I don’t think the meat will be that tender to be honest,” Mya said. “I was thinking of getting an Instant Pot. That would make things like this so much easier.”
“You should get one. My mom got one on sale a few months ago.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely worth the investment. Plus I’ll have it for my future one bedroom apartment. I’m manifesting my dream life.”
You’d never given much thought about your future after college, other than getting a job. Mya was skipping over those things and fast forwarding to the things she wanted to get out of life. Thinking about it a little more deeply, by getting her dream apartment, she’d have her dream career and make lots of money.
“I need to get to that level of positivity…”
“You should make a vision board sometime. It helps and it can be your motivation.”
Before you could add anything else, there was a knock on the door. Looking through the peephole, you found the person you’d been expecting. You smiled and let him in.
“Hey,” he said, giving you one of those bear hugs you loved. He turned to the kitchen. “Hi Mya.”
She said, “Hey Baekhyun. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I was in Korea for the summer,” he explained. “What are you making by the way? Smells good.”
The three of you made small talk for five more minutes before Mya finished up in the kitchen. Then, Baekhyun plopped on the couch and picked up his phone. You sat next to him. He said, “You hungry?”
“Not really, but I will be.”
“What do you wanna get?”
“How about some Thai food?”
Baekhyun nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
You leaned on Baekhyun’s shoulder as you both ordered the dishes you wanted. You ended up ordering basil fried rice and pad thai with some spring rolls. After ordering, you put on the TV. “You wanna wait to watch Euphoria and watch it while we eat?” He nodded and went to the kitchen to grab his backpack. He pulled out your favorite snack, handing it to you.
You smiled, taking the bag of honey snacks. “You remembered.”
“I found the big bag of them at h mart and thought I’d get it for you.”
As the food came and you watched a couple episodes of the show, you felt like things were returning to the way they used to be. You laughed and joked. He tickled you when you made slick-ass comments to roast him, sending you in a frenzy of giggles. He reminisced about old times and filled you in about his school year so far. He told you about how the gym doesn’t suit him and that he’s been swimming lately. He expressed his concerns about graduation and talked about one day how he wanted to start a business. The two of you danced like fools in the living room and you hugged him, tipsy off of the wine.
And you ended up passing out on the couch, Baekhyun falling asleep on a pillow in your lap. You weren’t sure what time you fell asleep or how you fell asleep in the first place, but you woke up and saw that the cable box let you know that it was almost midnight. Baekhyun was still fast asleep, his mouth slightly ajar.
“Hey,” you said, tapping his cheek. “Wake up babe…”
Baekhyun opened his eyes, a bit startled and sat up. “God, what time is it? How did we fall asleep?”
“No idea,” you said, laughing. “One minute we were dancing and then the next minute we weren’t. Let’s sleep in the bed.”
“I should actually head home,” he said. “I’m going to the pool in the morning for a workout.”
Disappointment washed over you. It wasn’t a big deal and you knew that he wasn’t lying but you couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the fact that he wasn’t going to sleep over. After all your efforts, your chance was shot down yet again. You didn’t want to come off as crazy or be insensitive or anything like that, so you kept your mouth shut.
“Oh,” you said. “Okay.”
“I wanted to go early in the morning,” he explained.
“Yeah that’s fine,” you said.
As Baekhyun stood up and grabbed his things, you couldn’t help but feel frustrated. Your chance had been blown away by a strong gust of wind that you couldn’t control. Things with Baekhyun were up in the air and you didn’t know if you could get a hold of the situation. A relationship with Baekhyun was beginning to seem like a faraway dream.
*********
Tag List: @shesdreaminginoverdose @multistania
Please DM me if you want to be added to the tag list! Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
#baekhyun#byun baekhyun#baekhyun fluff#baekhyun smut#baekhyun angst#exo angst#exo fluff#exo smut#exo fanfic#exo imagines#baekhyun imagines#exo reactions#kpop angst#kpop smut#kpop fluff#fwb!au#fwb!baekhyun#fwb! to lovers
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Billboard #1s 1988
Under the cut.
"So Emotional" -- Whitney Houston -- January 9, 1988
It's either a song about cheating or about being hung up on an ex. She's got a love of her own, but she's "so emotional" with this other guy, and keeps a picture of him by her bed. Um, does the other guy know this? Maybe she needs to have sex with the other guy so she stops being obsessed with the touch of the previous one. It's a dance song, and I like the beat, but it's painfully repetitive in the second half. Also, while I've known the chorus to this song very well since it came out, I thought it was a normal love song until I looked up the lyrics just now. Houston doesn't sing it like she's in any pain -- well, except I bet her throat hurt from the oversinging.
"Got My Mind Set on You" -- George Harrison -- January 16, 1988
Super repetitive lyrics. But the music's really fun, and I love what lyrics there are. I wish there weren't so few, though. "It's gonna take a whole lot of money" harks back to the many Beatles songs where they sang proudly about spending money on women they loved. Still, this is an example of how George was the best solo Beatle eventually. The video's cute, too, and obviously lampshades the idea of George Harrison doing backflips and dancing.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" -- Michael Jackson -- January 23, 1988
Michael Jackson was no Janelle Monáe. On so many levels. In this case, he wasn't anywhere near her artistic standard. This song does have the lyrics "Oh I'll be workin' from nine to five/ To buy you things to keep you by my side," but it sounds more like a Beatles rip-off than a tribute. I actually didn't remember this song at all, and the video is one of those annoying 80s ones that takes an entire minute to start the song. Then Jackson does a whole bunch of "woos" and "ows" and all that stuff he did that worked in moderation. But "moderation" was not what he was doing in 1988. In any way. He actually oversings in this. I turned it off halfway through. And immediately turned to Janelle Monáe's "The Way You Make Me Feel," which I adore.
"Need You Tonight" -- INXS -- January 30, 1988
This is one of my favorite songs. It's incredibly sexy, obviously. I didn't really notice it until I was around 15, and then I NOTICED it. As I got older, the song got better. The lines "You can care all you want/ Everybody does yeah that's okay" have meant so much to me ever since I started dating seriously. Because caring was not what you were supposed to do.
Anyway, this song is phenomenal and I love it.
"Could've Been" -- Tiffany -- February 6, 1988
This song was #1 for two weeks, and all the previous ones from 1988 have been one week. How? It's a heartbreak song that starts with the lyrics "The flowers you gave me/ Are just about to die," which is painfully on-the-nose. They'd probably work in a country song, but this is lite pop, not country. Tiffany occasionally seems to be trying to do some country stuff with her voice, which is smart. But that's not enough. It's not a terrible song, but it does nothing for me. I don't remember ever having heard it before.
"Seasons Change" -- Exposé -- February 20, 1988
Speaking of songs I haven't heard before. I like this one though. The music's pretty interesting, especially the melody. The singing's excellent. And the music behind "seasons change/people change" sounds exactly like some of the music from Persona 4, so I wonder if Atlus' composer was influenced by it, unconsciously or not. It's just a couple notes, though. Lyrically, the song is about being in love now but realizing it might not last. It's good. I'm gonna look up more of their music.
"Father Figure" -- George Michael -- February 27, 1988
The music for this song is great, and George Michael as usual sings wonderfully. But um. There are some kinks that make me run screaming even when they're really mild. "I will be your father figure/ Put your tiny hand in mine" are two of them. So if you enjoy this song, I'm happy for you, it's musically lovely. I will be going to take a shower now.
"Never Gonna Give You Up" -- Rick Astley -- March 12, 1988
There was a time when I would have easily been able to have an opinion on this song. That time was long ago. It's hard to hear as a song now, rather than an internet meme. But I will not give up. (The video has almost 9 million views, sheesh.)
Okay so they're friends and now he wants a relationship. He says "You wouldn't get this from any other guy," which is a total jerkass line. Other than that, the lyrics are -- oh who am I kidding, I can't do this.
"Man in the Mirror" -- Michael Jackson -- March 26, 1988
I try to separate the art from the artist. That's in both positive and negative directions. If I love someone's art, that doesn't mean they're a good person. If I hate it, that doesn't mean they're a bad person.
This song, though -- "I'm starting with the man in the mirror/ I'm asking him to change his ways" -- uh yeah. Liar. And it's wedged in with all this "oh you should care about all the starving kids and homeless people" self-sanctification that Michael Jackson always protected himself with. This song disgusts me.
"Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" -- Billy Ocean -- April 9, 1988
Speaking of disgust. Yay street harassment! I've never heard anything bad about Billy Ocean as a human being though. But I'm not listening to more than 5 seconds of this song. Gross.
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" -- Whitney Houston -- April 23, 1988
She's singing to a man she wants to get back together with after they decided they needed some "space." There's a lot of naivete in the song -- "And if somebody loves you/ Won't they always love you?" No. Even if they do still love you, that doesn't mean it will work. But maybe it will. I've never gotten back together with someone after a breakup, though I've been asked to many times (percentage-wise.) I've always had an allergy to it, both because my parents got back together after divorcing and should not have, and because I had a friend who broke up with her boyfriend and got back together with him at least 8 times in the space of a year and I had to keep hearing about it.
So this song doesn't really speak to me. But it's pretty good. Houston sings it well too, reigning in the oversinging until near the end.
"Wishing Well" -- Terence Trent D'Arby -- May 7, 1988
That's an awesome name. The writer of this song said he wrote it when he was half-asleep, which makes sense. "Butterfly tears", okay, just poetry, but you want to fall in love near a well of crocodile tears too? Doesn't that mean you're faking? I like the song though. It's sort of funk, but softer than full-on funk. I like the way D'Arby sings it. The whistling part (keyboard whistling) is very enjoyable. It's a fun song, and one I do remember from the time.
"Anything for You" -- Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine -- May 14, 1988
A pretty breakup song. But, of course, I have an issue. "I can pretend each time I see you/ That I don't care and I don't need you/ And though you'll never see me cryin'/ You know inside I feel like dying." Well that makes his life a lot easier, doesn't it. The whole song is about how she'll do anything to make him happy. Urgh. She needs to tell him to get out of her life so she can make a brand new start.
"One More Try" -- George Michael -- May 28, 1988
Yet another heartbreak song. It's not surprising that I remember so few songs from this year. I feel like I'm back in the 60s before The Beatles again. Though this year is musically better, I'm still bored. Anyway, in this one, the narrator doesn't want to try again, and he keeps addressing the person he doesn't want to try again with as "teacher," which is... a thing. The only time he seems willing to try again is the very last line, which is "Maybe just one more try."
It's slow, it's pretty enough, it would be unbearably boring if George Michael weren't such a good singer. I'm bored anyway. No wonder we ran screaming from anything smacking of this kind of thing in the early 90s. I feel stupid and contagious.
"Together Forever" -- Rick Astley -- June 18, 1988
He certainly had a brand, didn't he? The song title tells you everything you need to know about the lyrics. The song sounds a lot like "Never Gonna Give You Up," but much more boring. A massive drum machine intro can't carry this. I do recognize the chorus, but that's it. The song is fine, really. But that's it. It sounds like a lesser knockoff of "Never Gonna Give You Up."
"Foolish Beat" -- Debbie Gibson -- June 25, 1988
Heartbreak song. Sigh. There's a nice cheesy saxophone that I like, at least. She left him and she regrets it and thinks "I could never love again/ The way that I loved you." Nope, it's never the same. That doesn't mean it's worse. It's often better. I'm not listening to the whole thing, not even in case the sax comes back. The song's too dull.
"Dirty Diana" -- Michael Jackson -- July 2, 1988
It's about some groupie trying to seduce poor widdle helpless Michael. I don't remember ever hearing this song, and it's musically whiny too. Yuck. So much yuck.
"The Flame" -- Cheap Trick -- July 9, 1988
Heartbreak. Song. Again. "You were the first, you'll be the last" oh no they won't. I entirely approve of being honest about heartbreak, but this year is just crushing with the monotony of it. At least there's a beat to this one.
By the way, in the video, the lead singer's hair appears to be made of straw. Ah, the late 80s, when people thought cooking their hair was the way to go.
"Hold on to the Nights" -- Richard Marx -- July 23, 1988
A heartbreak song in disguise. He's in love with this woman but they can't be together. Are they cheating? I don't know. I don't care. It's so boring, words and music both. Even the piano is blah.
Speaking of late 80s hair, it looks like Richard Marx used an entire can of Aqua Velva on his in the video.
"Roll With It" -- Steve Winwood -- July 30, 1988
This was a #1 hit for four weeks, and I know why. It's not boring! Or depressing! It's got kind of an old-fashioned soul sound: Horns, groove, lyrics. When life is too much, roll with it baby. Not profound, but this is a really good song. One I've heard quite a lot, too, on purpose and everything.
Also, Steve Winwood's hair would work fine today. Coincidence?
"Monkey" -- George Michael -- August 27, 1988
This is actually kind of a heartbreak song, but not really. The one he loves has a "monkey" on their back and he wonders if they love it more than they love him. Addiction is my guess. It's a high-energy dance song, though -- it sounds a little angry, not sad at all. I find the melody sort of dull, but at least there's a beat. But I'm sorry, "Why can't you set your monkey free" is an absolutely hilarious lyric, and I can't take this song seriously in any way.
I think I had the hat George Michael's wearing in the video.
"Sweet Child O' Mine" -- Guns N' Roses -- September 10, 1988
Okay, yeah, sort of a heartbreak song, the relationship sounds like it's a mess with "where do we go now?" sung a zillion times. But it's so good. SO good. And it's rock. It's no wonder that it's one of the few songs that have stayed around from this list. It's not some kind of mass-produced pap without personality. Only Guns N'Roses could do this. Great song, I love it, and I love it more knowing what came before it. Man, Slash can play.
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" -- Bobby McFerrin -- September 24, 1988
Yeah, I'm guessing people were horribly sick of all the overproduced depression on the charts this year. A lot of music critics, and other critics, were really nasty about it because of the simplicity of its lyrics and its earworm-ness. And we made fun of the phrase plenty as young teens in the 90s. But now? I think it's pretty good. Philosophically, it's a mess, but the music isn't serious so I don't think we're supposed to take it seriously. And I like a-cappella. It was played way too much back in the day, though.
(Robin Williams is in the video, which made me tear up. Oof.)
"Love Bites" -- Def Leppard -- October 8, 1988
Technically about heartbreak I guess, but I feel like they're lampshading all the songs from this year which may as well have had the same title. Probably not intentionally. I can't take this song the tiniest bit seriously. It's rock, but not with a lot of personality. Any hair metal band from the time with interchangeable bleached blond frontmen could have done it.
I think this guy used an air fryer on his hair.
"Red Red Wine" -- UB40 -- October 15, 1988
One is supposed to hate this song, or was I don't hate it. I was a kid when it came out, the pop reggae appealed to me, and I still find it fun. Neil Diamond, the original singer, likes it. I certainly find it more interesting than anything with Neil Diamond singing on it.
"A Groovy Kind of Love" -- Phil Collins -- October 22, 1988
It's a cover of a 60s song. "Baby, you and me/ Got a groovy kind of love." This version is incredibly slow, and doesn't have any interesting drum work from Phil. It doesn't make me angry, but it doesn't make me anything. It's there. My brain wandered off and I started looking at stuff on the internet while trying to listen to it.
"Kokomo" -- The Beach Boys -- November 5, 1988
I loved this song as a kid and no one is prying it from me. It makes me happy when I feel down. I got the Cocktail soundtrack this is on for Christmas in my stocking 1988 -- me and seemingly every other kid, I think the tape was massively on sale. I loved the soundtrack, and I especially loved this song. I will never see the movie. I always felt that the song was a middle-aged man singing to his middle-aged wife ("pretty mama".) Which I thought was sweet. I figured that's what middle-aged people did, went off on vacations to tropical islands sometimes, even though my parents never did. I want to though.
"Wild, Wild West" -- The Escape Club -- November 12, 1988
"Heading for the nineties," hm? Well one of the lines is "give me, give me safe sex," and safe sex messaging being absolutely everywhere was an early to mid 90s thing. It's always funny to hear someone with an English accent sing about something extremely American. This song does sound like it's heading for the nineties musically, which is good. Only heading toward though. It's okay, but not very interesting. The music is repetitive. I got bored halfway though.
"Bad Medicine" -- Bon Jovi -- November 19, 1988
Your love is like "bad medicine" and he's addicted. Like a monkey on his back. What's with that phrase this year? I don't recognize this song. It's overproduced, it's shouty, there's too much going on, and it feels like it's trying too hard. Nope.
"Baby, I Love Your Way/ Freebird Medley" -- Will to Power -- December 3, 1988
I'm used to the 90s cover of "Baby, I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain. And I don't think I'm being biased when I say the Big Mountain version is significantly better. The lead singer of this one, a woman, is way too breathy and mannered.
The "Freebird" portion is bad. Just plain bad. The man singing is also breathy and there's absolutely no oomph. Also a lite, bouncy pop song in which the woman is singing how much she loves the man and the man's like "no I gotta be free" is blech. It does not work.
"Look Away" -- Chicago -- December 10, 1988
This was Chicago's biggest single. The narrator's ex called him to tell him she's with someone new, and he pretends to be happy for her, but wants her to look away so she doesn't see the tears of a clown -- er, no, that's a better song. Same idea though.
A heartbreak song, but I don't mind it, because it's got some blood to it. It's not slow and there's a real beat. Also Peter Cetera wasn't with Chicago any more, so Bill Champlin's the lead singer here, and he's so much better than Cetera it's ridiculous. Champlin brings some guts to the song, he doesn't sing through his nose, and he sounds truly heartbroken. Worlds better than Cetera. So it's a good enough song, if you're in the mood for that kind of thing.
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" -- Poison -- December 24, 1988
I never minded this song before at all, but I am so sick of this kind of song at this point. Whine whine whine every cowboy sings a sad sad song. You're no Johnny Cash, dude. He said something wrong, he doesn't know what it was, they broke up and he still doesn't know why -- okay, who does this? Actually wait, I know one person who did this, and he keeps saying he has no idea why either of his wives broke up with him and I do because I was there and they told him they would break up with him if he didn't change. Over and over and over and over. And now he's like "poor me, I don't know why this happened. " He probably doesn't, either. He cannot admit fault.
Anyway, projections of my own personal trauma onto a hair metal band aside, the narrator’s ex is now with someone new and he thinks "I never meant that much to you." Maybe, maybe not. Cowboy, change your ways today.
BEST OF 1988 -- "Need You Tonight" by INXS and "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses. WORST OF 1988 -- "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" by Billy Ocean
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Questions about me
Thank you to @nazezdha321 for “tagging” me (more of a “if you see this and wanna play you should situation but shshshssssshhhhh it looked fun ok)
1. what is the color of your hairbrush?
Blue, like my hair
2. name a food you never eat
Brussel sprouts and tomatoes. Just, no.
3. are you typical too warm or too cold?
Too cold, always and all the time, I need like 3 blankts on me at all times to make it through winter and two the rest of the year. All of this is while wearing pants and a sweater.
4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago?
Talking to a friend online, still doing that haha
5. what’s your favorite candy bar?
I love chocolate tbh, probably something like kit kats? Plain chocolate is great too though
6. have you ever been to professional sports event?
Nope
7. what is the last thing you said out loud?
“Ok I’m gonna head to my room, have fun guys!” My sister’s boyfriend is here, they’re watching a movie together in the livingroom.
8. what is your favorite ice cream?
Hmmm, I really love chocolate. There’s a place in my town that has a kind with brownie bits and fudge swirled in, it’s amazing, I love that one
9. what was the last thing you had to drink?
Some water, it’s in a cup next to me haha
10. do you like your wallet?
Eh it’s alright, I mean it works. It’s a bit too big, I gotta get a smaller one, but it’s alright!
11. what is the last thing you ate?
Some tortilla soup for dinner
12. did you buy any new clothes last weekend?
Nope, I haven’t bought new clothes since summer, and even then it was like two shirts.
13. what’s the last sporting event you watched?
I don’t even remember, I haven’t watched sports in years. I don’t care for them and neither does my family, so we don’t watch them
14. what is your favorite flavor of popcorn?
I love super buttery popcorn. And this isn’t really a flavor, but I love it with chocolate drizzled on top
15. who is the last person you send text message to?
Uhhh I sent a message to @baloobird on discord? But I haven’t texted using like, my phone number in a looong time
16. ever been camping?
Nope, unless you count out in the backyard
17. do you take vitamins?
No, I haven’t for a while, we haven’t bought any since like YEARS ago
18. do you regularly attend a place of worship?
Nope
19. do you have a tan?
Not anymore, haven’t been outside very often at all.
20. do you prefer chinese or pizza?
Pizzaaaaaaa
21. do you drink your soda through a straw?
Yeah but just because we only buy it when we go out to eat, and they always give you soda in a cup with a straw. I haven’t drank from a can in forever, we never buy them.
22. what color socks you usually wear?
Black. I have some fluffy socks that are red and white, but I only wear them in Christmas time
23. do you ever drive above the speed limit?
Yeah but only by a few miles at most
24. what terrifies you?
The idea of old bullies coming back somehow, the idea of my family being hurt somehow, and never being able to make and keep good friends for longer than a couple years. Those are a few that I know off the top of my head.
25. look to your left, what do you see?
My teddy bear I keep on my bed for my bad anxiety days. He’s very huggable
26. what chore do you hate the most?
Hmm. I don’t like doing the dishes for sure, I have to do that every day, or sometimes every other day if there’s not many to do. Don’t like laundry or shoveling the driveway when it snows either
27. what do you think when you hear australian accent?
The movie Rescuers Down Under
28. what’s your favorite soda?
Sprite. I don’t drink soda very much, i can’t remember the last time I had something OTHER than Sprite
29. do you go in a fast food place or just hit drive through?
Usually drive thru, we don’t like eating in places, even before the pandemic haha
30. what’s your favorite number?
24. No idea why, I’ve just been attached ever since I was little. When I was like 3-4 I would answer all math questions, mainly grown-ups asking me “what’s 2+2?” with 24. No clue why.
31. who’s the last person you talked to?
Online would be @baloobird, irl would be my family at dinner a little while ago
32. favorite meal?
Fettucine Alfredo... god my stomach’s rumbling just thinking about it haha, I haven’t eaten in a couple hours
33. last song you listed to?
Crumbs by Belaganas. It’s the only song by them I have on my playlist because @tracle0 recommended it to me. It reminds us of my OC Tatum.
34. last book you read?
Reread a bit of my favorite comic called Saga
35. favorite day of the week?
Saturdays, i usually get some time to myself then. I didn’t get that this Saturday though, too much work it spilled out into the weekend, but I did get a little today.
36. can you say alphabet backwards?
Nope haha
37. how do you like your coffee?
So sweet it barely even tastes like coffee.
38. favorite pair of shoes?
My mismatching red and blue converse with black laces.
39. time you normally get up?
7:30am
40. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunset?
Sunrise. Everything is quiet and you’re still a little sleepy and it’s probably a bit cold if you’re on the beach, and that’s perfect.
41. how many blankets on your bed?
Three because I’m a touch-starved bag of twigs that’s constantly cold.
42. describe your kitchen plates.
Some are blue and are made of plastic, some are white and made of ceramic or glass or whatever cheap plates are made of.
43. describe your kitchen at the moment.
Lots of cabinets, an old toaster oven and a stand up mixer in the corner, window over a deep sink, next to that a dishwasher. Counters are a brown marbley kind that make it impossible to tell if it’s dirty or not.
44. do you have a favorite alcoholic drink?
Not old enough to drink, nope
45. do you play cards?
Eh? My family likes 3-13 and Egyptian war, but board games are our favorite.
46. what color is your car?
We have two, both every very old. One is a red little one, the other is a tan minivan.
47. can you change a tire?
Nope, should probably learn to do that at some point
48. your favorite state or province?
I... don’t know. I’ve moved around quite a bit, live in different parts of CA, lived up in WA, now I live in PA. I’d say WA because it feels like I can relate to a lot of people there, like WA people are my kinda people ya know? And it’s so beautiful and has just so many things I love in it... But that’s also where most of my bullies were. So every time I think about it it always has that shadow because I was miserable half the time. But PA isn’t my favorite because the people here are so different from me, and CA isn’t my favorite because my extended family lives there and they’re Very Not Cool. I’ve had bullies in both those places as well too, but not as bad as WA. So uh... I don’t know, I suppose.
49. favorite job you’ve had?
Never had a job unfortunately, my parents said I couldn’t get one till after High School cuz they wanted me to focus on school, and then, halfway through my senior year, a pandemic happened. Yay Class Of 2020! Anyway, I haven’t gotten a job because if I don’t need it, I don’t want to get one and potentially but myself, my family, and other people at risk, even though having the extra money would be nice.
Tagging: @tracle0 @baloobird @jelly-pies @silver-bubbles @mysterycheerio @shadedrose01 and everyone else who wants to do it! Feel free to tag me and say I tagged you haha
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stray kids as anime boys: bang chan [part 1] [part 2]
✎ᝰ┆bang chan as the sports captain
(feat. stray kids && some of the 97liners)
listen
this is the only role I am 100% convince chan will be in an anime
u can't change my mind ᕦ(ò_ó)ᕤ
S O let's get into it
what sports captain is he??
the question should be what sports captain is he not
d-does that make sense?? HDHS U GET WHAT I MEAN
look chan is build™ with muscles (and brains) he's gonna use those muscles
for s p o r t s
"chan u can't join all the sports club"
“watch me felix”
ya boi tried out for every sports club available in school and he got into to every one of them
THANKFULLY felix made him reject some(most) of them bc chan already doesn't sleep enough
everyone say thank u felix
so chan is in the volleyball and basketball club
and he's the volleyball captain!!!
chan is the secret weapon lemme tell u that
his spikes?? they can BREAK A WALL
so if u see chan practicing spikes pls be careful
avoid him
avoid the gym in general
unless ur asking for a concussion SKSKS
no joke there's a dent in one of the gym's wall bc he spiked too hard
his excuse was "bambam ur supposed to block it!"
"I WAS TRYING NOT TO DIE CHRISTOPHER!!!"
so how does that apply to u dear reader
well, ur not a huge sports fan
u rather stay at home and watch netflix than go under that cursed fireball u call a sun
but yk who is a huge sports fan???
ur best friends chaeyeon and lisa!
well technically bc chaeyeon is dating jaehyun who's also on the volleyball team
and lisa swears she doesn't but obviously she's there to look at jungkook
"y/n! there's a game after school today, and you're coming with us to watch it"
"just admit u wanna look at jungkook and go"
"WITH WHAT PROOF????"
"WITH THOSE HEART EYES LALISA"
"HHHHHHH CHAEYEON, Y/N IS BULLYING ME AGAIN"
Σ(°ロ°) "WHAT DO U MEAN AGAIN??? WHO WAS THE ONE WHO PUT CHILLI PEPPERS IN MY SANDWICH HUHH LISA WHOOOO—"
mama chaeyeon saves the day, "alright children no more fighting"
"SHE STARTED IT FIRST!"
"FIGHT ME LISA" (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ
in the spongebob narrative voice 2 hours later
u find urself in sandwiched between chaeyeon and lisa, sitting on one of the gym's bleachers
chan and the boys are down there warming up
and u can't help but drift ur gaze to a certain (crispy)blond hair boy, who's stretching at the moment
maybe u were starting too long, but lisa nudges ur elbow with a sly smirk
"ohohoho y/n, what do u see??"
u shove her elbow away and glare at her, "ur about to see my fists in a minute"
the entire game ur gaze was set on chan and u don't even know why
jokes on u reader, it was the anime magic kicking in
up until the second half of the game, u had the sudden need to go to the bathroom and who are u to deny ur bladder dhhshd
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," you tell lisa and stood up to squeeze ur way out of the bleachers
ur earbuds almost burst due to all the screaming dhshhd
but hey! u successfully made it to the end
\(@ ̄∇ ̄@)/
u make ur way towards the exit when u hear lisa and chaeyeon scream your name
and suddenly the world went black
y/n?? y/n??? oh my god she fuckin dead
maybe u regain conscious for a few seconds bc the last thing u remembered was a pair of feet running and the scent of someone's sweat mixed with cologne
yk the typical anime shit dhsjdjs
when u wake up, ur laying down a bed and ur in a room where u don't recognise
"holy shit y/n, you're awake! lisa go get the nurse!" chaeyeon exclaims from beside you and you hear the door close
you squint your eyes, trying to adjust from the bright light
chaeyeon's face comes into view and she has a worried expression on
"w-what happened?? where am I??" you ask she helps you sit up on the bed
"you're in the nurse's office!"
"why,,, am I in the nurse's office?" you furrow your eyebrows at chaeyeon
"well you see—"
the door slams open to reveal lisa and the nurse
"oh good, y/n you're awake," the nurse smiles at you
she walks toward you and gently grabs your chin with her gloved hand to examine your face
"fortunately nothing is broken but that's gonna leave a bruise on your forehead for a while, you took quite a hit."
"a hit???" u furrow ur eyebrows even deeper if you could sjdjsk
"yeah! you got hit by a volleyball!! you should've seen what happened, the ball went flying like WOOOSH at you and BAM u were knocked out!!" lisa explains with many hand gestures
"it was a good thing that chan boy carried you here, you were out cold," the nurse adds.
wait
Σ(゜゜) c-chan???
CHAN CARRIED YOU HERE???
u don't even notice your face starts to heat up until the nurse looks at you with concern again
she places her hand against ur forehead and says, "oh my, you're heating up, I think you got a fever coming—"
"no! no, I'm completely fine!" you reassure the nurse
you bring your hands up to your cheeks and rub it harshly and slap it a few times in hopes the redness will go away
HAH SIKE UR BLOOD SAYS NO
the nurse let's you stay in the office for awhile, thank god school was already over
lisa and chaeyeon, like the best friends they were, stayed with u and walked u back home
the next morning when u wake up—
━Σ(゚Д゚|||)━
HOLY SHIT THE NURSE WAS NOT KIDDING WHEN SHE SAID IT WAS GONNA LEAVE A BRUISE
THERE'S A HUGE ASS BUMP ON THE MIDDLE OF YOUR FOREHEAD
WHAT THE FUCK
HOW THE FUCK ARE U GONNA COVER THAT UP
U ARE THIS )( CLOSE IN CUTTING UR BANGS AT 7 IN THE MORNING JUST TO COVER UR FOREHEAD* U WOULD'VE IF UR BRAT OF A BROTHER DIDN'T KNOCK ON THE DOOR
"y/n hurry up you're gonna make us late!!"
"SHUT UP HYUNJIN I'M HAVING A MID LIFE CRISIS AT THE MOMENT"
"YOU CAN HAVE IT IN THE CAR"
in all honesty u should be thanking hyunjin for saving u from the future regrets
otw out of the bathroom u curse at hyunjin, who sticks his tongue out in return, and grab one of ur beanies from ur dresser and slip it on
"why the fuck are you wearing a beanie in the middle of summer??"
"it's called fashion hyunjin, look it up"
(hyunjin, snorting) "please, we all know I'm the fashionable one in this family"
so yes, u walk into school with a beanie on ur head, in the middle of summer
it definitely caught weird looks from people because again, why the fuck are you wearing a beanie in this heat???
it's equivalent to having a "I'm stupid" sign taped on ur forehead
u walk into class, already tired from everything and everyone and first period hasn't even started yet!
what a mood
chaeyeon looks at you weirdly and opens her mouth to ask but you stop her
"don't. a lot of people already asked," you groaned, pointing at the black beanie on your head, specifically the spot where u got hit at
chaeyeon looks at you with sympathy and pats your head
when lunch rolls on, lisa basically slams into ur classroom
"why are u wearing a beanie??"
"because I can and it's a free country!!!" u snap at her
"geez fine," lisa puts her hands up
(lisa, mumbling under her breath) "someone woke up from the wrong side of bed today"
"HEY I HEARD THA—"
"OKAAAAY let's go I wanna get pizza bread before it's gone," chaeyeon interrupts aka stopping another fight from happening by hooking her arms through yours and lisa’s* (¬、¬) hnnggg u win today jung chaeyeon
u turn to walk out of the door when u stop in your footsteps
to see the PERSON WHO CAUSE UR FOREHEAD BUMP BRENDA
YES U NAMED IT BRENDA IN THE CAR
IF SHE'S GONNA STAY ON UR FOREHEAD FOR A WHILE
AT LEAST SHE SHOULD HAVE A NAME
AND SHE'S NOT EVEN PAYING RENT
y/n's forehead:
brenda the bump: it's a free real estate
anyways
the three of u stop and stare at chan
like hullo, why u here???
chan coughs awkwardly and rubs the back of his neck. "um, can I speak with y/n?"
chaeyeon and lisa exchange a look and shrugs, "yeah sure," they say and pushes u out of the door
and u stumbled into his arms
again, the anime shit™ working its magic
u immediately push urself off chan and clasp ur hands behind ur back while chan takes a few steps back
"so,,," you start
"oh right! uh, I'm sorry for yesterday, hitting u with the ball and everything"
"oh! it's fine, it really is!" you assure him
"no, it's not! lemme treat you to lunch, it's the least I can do," chan says
"nononono you really don't have to!" you shake ur head at him
"please!" he begs, "I hurt you and I should do something for you"
"n—"
"JUST SAY YES" lisa yells from across the hall
you whip ur head towards her direction and flip her the bird
chaeyeon mouths an apology and drags lisa away, but her laughter rings through the empty hallway
you turn back to chan who's looking at you with pleading eyes
"pleaseee" (´・ᴗ・`)
GOD HE'S ADORABLE
"fine!"
"YAY"
"but!" u wag ur finger at him, "ur only allowed to buy me chocolate milk"
"yes!!" he cheers and drags u off to the school's convenience store to buy you a bottle of chocolate milk
u thought he was gonna get u the cheap one but nO
HE GETS U THE EXPENSIVE ONE
THE ONE THAT COSTS LIKE 3 DOLLARS
FIRST OF ALL, CHOCOLATE MILK SHOULD NOT BE THAT EXPENSIVE
FUCK CAPITALISM
secondly, if u thought this was a one time thing
hAH READER YOU ARE SO SO SO WRONG
it soon becomes a regular thing and every morning, there is a chocolate milk on ur desk with a cute stick it note saying "good morning ♡´・ᴗ・`♡"
GAH UR HEART
and everyday after school, chan walks up to u and ask "hey y/n! did u get the chocolate milk?"
and he will pout if u show him the untouched bottle of milk
so u make sure that u drink it during lunch where he can see u drinking it
and it makes his insides all mushy and squishy
and that escalates to him waiting by ur locker every morning!!
he waits for u by ur locker and when u walk in
he fucking beams at you
the sun who??? u only know a bang chan
he hands u the chocolate milk and greets u
"good morning, y/n!"
and ur hearts does it usual schedule bang-chan-caused-flips
AND THAT ESCALATES TO U GOING TO HIS GAMES
"I thought u hated these things??"
"well I do but chan asked me to come so—"
(lisa, wiggling her eyebrows) "oh chan huh"
"hdshhdshutup"
so here u are again, sandwiched in between lisa and chaeyeon
o wow ur feeling a sense of deja vu
chan spots u in the crowd and runs over to u
"try not to get hit by any balls this time," he grins as he ruffles ur hair
"friendly reminder, I got hit by a ball from you," u retort and smack his hand away
"YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T BRING THAT UP ANYMORE"
"I CROSSED MY FINGERS BITCH"
the coach whistles for chan to get into place and u grab onto his arm, shocking both of u
o wow u got bold moves there reader
"uh, good luck out there," u smile at him
chan's heart doubles over in LOVE and smiles back at you "thanks!"
he runs back to the team, who are all looking at him with a sly look
"so when are u gonna ask y/n out?"
"i'll purposely aim the ball at ur head mingyu"
tbh u don't even know much about volleyball and all u see are balls being hit back and forth
im writing the match based on what I've seen my school's team done and it may be inaccurate pls correct me
sometimes u involuntary wince when u see chan spikes and the ball bounces off the floor bc the other team failed to block it
u pity the floor
it's the last match and both teams are tied
chaeyeon is gripping onto ur arm for dear life bc out of the three of you, she's the only who understands the most about volleyball
both teams are fairly powerful
they have a really strong setter aka lee hyunjae
boy may not look like it but he's strong!!!
the coach whistles and jaehyun serves the ball
jacob from the other team returns the ball and it goes flying across the net
in a blink of an eye, chan yells "mine!" and he spikes the ball with force* hyunjae rushes to block it but misses by a milimetre and the ball bounces off the floor
the entire gymnasium erupts into cheers
and u are pulled up from ur seat by a screaming chaeyeon
they won???
OH MY GOD THEY WON DJSJDJ
chaeyeon runs down to congratulate her boyfriend and u follow in suit
but u run straight into chan's arms to hug him
"congrats!" u squeal as he lifts u off the ground and spins u around
when he sets u down, the both of u finally realizes the position ur in and back away from each other awkwardly
"ahaha,,, congratulations!!" u tell him
chan grins at u "what can I say, ur my lucky charm"
ur cheeks start to heat up again and chan laughs
the rest of the team comes over to drag chan to the changing room, leaving u alone with lisa and chaeyeon
once the boys disappear behind the doors, the two girls turn around to look at u
"what was that???" lisa asks, referring to the hug between u and chan, as she whacks ur arm
she tryna whack the answer out of u HDHS
"STOP HITTING ME WOMAN THAT HURTS!!!"
"NOT UNTIL U TELL ME WHAT WAS THAT BETWEEN U AND BANG CHAN, Y/N"
"it was a hug! nothing more!" u say, more like ur trying to convince it was nothing more
"that was not just a hug," lisa mimics ur voice "that was one of those couples hug chaeyeon and jaehyun does!"
(chaeyeon, pipping up from the side) "she's right!"
"he totally likes you!" lisa smirks at u
"no he does not!"
"uh yes, he does! jaehyun says so!" chaeyeon says in a matter-of-fact tone
"and you—" lisa points her index finger at u "—like him too!"
"WITH WHAT PROOF???"
"WITH THOSE HEART EYES HWANG Y/N"
before u can continue bicker and PROVE THAT U DO NOT LIKE BANG CHAN
jaehyun comes into view and says "hey y/n, chan is waiting for u outside, he has something to tell u"
[ part 2 ]
#stray kids#skz#stray kids chan#skz chan#stray kids bang chan#skz bang chan#bang chan imagines#bang chan scenarios#bang chan fluff#chan imagines#chan scenarios#chan fluff#bang chan#bang chan x reader#chan x reader#bang chan x you#stray kids x reader#kpop imagines#stray kids reactions#skz reactions#stray kids scenarios#stray kids fluff#bang chan smut#bang chan soft hours#bang chan skz
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